Deeper in the heart of Texas: HPE to move headquarters to the Houston metro

It’s been quite a year for all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined. It has changed our business as well. We’ve accelerated our pivot to meet customers where they are in their digital transformations in these extraordinary times. If nothing else, this year has proven to me that our strategy is the right one and that our team members can rise to any occasion.

COVID-19 has also changed how and where we will work. We’ve listened to our team members, who have told us they want more to spend less time at a physical worksite, so we’ve launched an initiative called “Edge to Office” which provides this flexibility while equipping our workforce to continue delivering for our customers and partners.

And in response to this new future of work, we have reevaluated our real estate site strategy to ensure that we are utilizing our workspaces most effectively and positioning our teams and talent in the best interests of our business.

As we look to the future, our business needs, opportunities for cost savings, and team members’ preferences about the future of work, we have made the decision to relocate HPE’s headquarters to the new campus under construction in Spring, Texas, just outside of Houston.

Why Houston?

Houston has long been our largest U.S. employment hub, and construction has been underway since the beginning of the year on a new, state-of-the-art campus in the area. Houston is also an attractive market for us to recruit and retain talent, and a great place to do business. The most diverse city in America and the fourth largest, Houston provides the opportunity over time to draw more diverse talent into our ranks – a key priority for HPE as we work to be unconditionally inclusive.

We also anticipate long term cost savings associated with this move that we can reinvest in key areas of our business and innovation.

Given our company’s long history in the region, this move makes sense for HPE. The world has changed, and we are changing with it for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.

Maintaining Silicon Valley presence as strategic hub for HPE innovation

We aren’t leaving Silicon Valley, a region inextricably linked to our rich history and heritage since Bill and Dave founded Hewlett Packard. Our San Jose campus will remain a hub for technological talent and innovation.

Notably, San Jose will become the new headquarters for our Aruba Intelligent Edge business. The explosion of devices, applications and data at the edge continues to drive demand for secure connectivity, and through our Aruba business, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the $39 billion edge market opportunity, which the pandemic has only accelerated with the need for digital workplace solutions.

This strategically important, high-growth HPE business will anchor our San Jose presence, and enable us to showcase the cutting-edge, post-pandemic digital workplace of the future, featuring Aruba technology solutions. In addition, our storage business, West Coast territory sales team, GreenLake, software, and other technical talent – along with non-technical talent that chooses not to relocate – will be based in San Jose.

Moving forward

Most of our customers, partners and team members won’t experience any changes associated with this move. We will provide the option to the majority of executives and non-technical team members at the San Jose campus to relocate to the Houston area. Relocation will be entirely voluntary, and there are no layoffs associated with this move.

2020 has been a year of challenges. But with challenge comes opportunity, and as an innovation company we must seize those opportunities to advance our business, serve our customers and partners, and take care of our team members. Because after all, WHO we are is not about WHERE we are – it is about the work we all do to advance the way people live and work.