VMware Acquires Kubernetes Star Heptio To Drive Cloud-Native Technology

VMware has signed an agreement to acquire Kubernetes startup Heptio, founded by the original creators of Kubernetes, in a move to drive greater Kubernetes adoption in enterprises on-premises and across multi-cloud environments.

"The team at Heptio has been focused on Kubernetes, creating products that make it easier to manage multiple clusters across multiple clouds," said Craig McLuckie, co-founder and CEO of Heptio, in a statement. "And now we will be tapping into VMware's cloud-native resources and proven ability to execute, amplifying our impact. VMware's interest in Heptio is a recognition that there is so much innovation happening in open source. We are jointly committed to contribute even more to the community —resources, ideas and support."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

VMware and Pivotal Software, both backed by Dell Technologies, currently offer PKS, which is a Kubernetes portfolio covering customer use cases for on-premises deployment and as a cloud service. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization leader said Heptio's Kubernetes solution, expertise and community leadership will enhance VMware's portfolio and accelerate enterprise adoption of Kubernetes.

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"Heptio products and services will reinforce and extend VMware's efforts with PKS to establish Kubernetes as the de facto standard for infrastructure across clouds upon closing," said Paul Fazzone, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Native Apps Business Unit, VMware, in a statement. We are thrilled that the Heptio team led by Craig and Joe [Beda] will be joining VMware to help us guide customers as they move to a multi-cloud world."

Heptio was founded in 2016 by Joe Beda and Craig McLuckie, two of the original creators of Kubernetes. Heptio has quickly become a leader in the open Kubernetes ecosystem by offering products and expertise aimed at helping organizations deploy and operationalize Kubernetes.

Heptio will be able to open new channels for VMware to further engage the open-source community and harden upstream Kubernetes as well as support the cloud-native needs of the largest enterprises in the world upon closing, according to VMware.

The transaction is expected to close in VMware's fourth fiscal quarter of 2019.

VMware unveiled the acquisition Tuesday at VMworld 2018 Europe in Barcelona. Also at VMworld, the company introduced major upgrades to VMware Cloud Foundation as well as tighter integration with Dell EMC around hyper-converged infrastructure solutions.