HPE is reportedly planning to streamline its business by making a drastic staff reduction, cutting in the region of 5,000 jobs.

The move is apparently driven by an interest to become more agile and manoeuvrable as the company looks to gain a strong foothold in the fast changing IT market.

The company is targeting the end of the year as a point by which to have achieved this reduction in jobs, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Areas lined up to undergo this process include the HPE consulting division, as well as its Chinese business, channelling new focus into areas such as cloud services, and cybersecurity.

A noted increase in job cutting has been observed since the 2015 arrival of Whitman as the new CEO, who commented on the HPE financial results recently, she said: “a smaller organization with fewer lines of business and clear strategic priorities.”

Recently HPE closed a deal with Micro Focus, agreeing to engage in an $8.8 billion spin-off merger with its software business. Upon completion of this deal, Meg Whitman, CEO, HPE, said in a statement: “HPE has achieved a major milestone in becoming a stronger, more focused company.”

Following this deal, Micro Focus announced new security portfolio innovations, pointing to HPE’s growing abilities and interest in focusing on cybersecurity, among other new spaces. Predictive analytics and risk management will also feature in these joint developments, areas widely deemed essential to the future of security.

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Indicative of the new direction the company is seeking to prioritise, HPE recently acquired Cloud Technology Partners, an organisation centred upon guiding the decisions of companies looking to achieve cloud migration.

With the recent report of HPE’s plans to reduce its consulting division, the acquisition of CTP could be explained, with the company seeking to gain ground in a more specific region of IT consulting.