Hitachi Vantara Federal CEO says REAN acquisition will add six contracts

Hitachi Vantara today closed on its acquisition of REAN Cloud, whose federal work will add six contracts to Hitachi Vantara Federal, according to the company's chief executive.

Dave Turner, who heads HVF, told Inside Defense his company is seeking to become an end-to-end data services provider for its federal customers. The company has long specialized in data storage, but will add the public cloud piece with REAN.

REAN's six contracts "are across both the civilian and defense communities," he said. That "marries nicely with our footprint, which is civilian, defense and intelligence communities."

REAN Cloud attracted attention when, earlier this year, the Defense Department awarded it a follow-on production agreement for cloud services worth nearly $1 billion. The deal was facilitated by the Defense Innovation Unit and followed prototype work REAN Cloud did for U.S. Transportation Command.

However, Oracle America filed a bid protest, which was upheld by the Government Accountability Office.

Turner said the original award indicated "the government saw something special in their capabilities and their technology platform to be able to make that step," he said. "That is still there, and that is really the reason that we were attracted to them."