Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) has agreed to buy software company SimpliVity for $650 million in cash. The target is backed by Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, DFJ, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Meritech Capital Partners and Waypoint Capital. SimpliVity, founded in 2009 and based in Westborough, Massachusetts, provides hyperconverged infrastructure software. Hyperconverged technology combines storage and networks into a pre-configured system that is managed by "user-friendly" software and usually doesn’t require a lot of IT support. HP expects the market to be valued at almost $6 billion by 2020. One of SimpliVity’s competitors, Nutanix Inc. (Nasdaq: NTNX), went public in 2016. “This transaction expands HPE’s software-defined capability and fits squarely within our strategy to make hybrid IT simple for customers,” says HP CEO Meg Whitman. HP has been busy streamling its portfolio through M&A. In 2016, the company combined some of its software assets with Micro Focus International; bought data analytics company Silicon Graphics; and merged its technology-services division with Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC). In other recent technology deals, AEI-backed Belcan purchased information technology outsourcing company the Kemtah Group; LLR Partners bought cybersecurity company BluVector from Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC); and Thompson Street Capital Partners is buying legal software provider Software Technology Inc.