HPE CEO Antonio Neri has talked of its green-lit deal with Juniper as a positive moment for the partner bases of both vendors.
The acquisition finally closed after going through the approval process, and Neri said partners had been waiting for this day to start getting to grips with a much wider networking portfolio.
“Every partner I know...is super excited about this combination. In fact, they were wondering when we were able to close this transaction. We had tremendous engagement from partners throughout the process,” he said.
Asked about the logistics of combining two channels, Neri indicated that a lot of the groundwork had already been done on that front by creating a unified programme.
“From a programmatic perspective, HPE has already combined the partner programme. We announced that last week with new features at HPE Discover. Now, HPE has one comprehensive channel programme, which includes all aspects of our business.
“Over time, we’re going to integrate the Juniper product channel programme to [cover] the entire portfolio, because we want to make sure [partners] take advantage of everything the networking business now has to offer,” he said.
Speaking about the significance of the Juniper deal closing, Neri said it was a milestone in the firm’s history and would strengthen its capabilities on the networking side of the business.
“This is a new era of IT, defined by the convergence of networking, hybrid cloud and AI [artificial intelligence], and its working role is the connected fabric for both enterprises and service providers, which has never been more relevant,” he said.
“Our powerful combination with Juniper will enable HPE to offer an industry-leading, secure, cloud-native, AI-driven portfolio, including a full modern networking stack. We are not just building a stronger company, we are establishing an industry powerhouse with the vision, scale and innovation that define and lead the future, one that will serve our customers and partners better than ever,” he added.
Rami Rahim, former CEO of Juniper Networks, who will now lead the combined HPE Networking business, was also upbeat about the implications of the tie-up.
We’re just getting started, but my objective here is to build the best networking business on the planet, one that’s founded in innovation
Rami Rahim, HPE Networking
“As separate companies, we have delivered differentiated networking solutions to customers around the globe, and now we’re even better together, offering secure AI-native networks that address the biggest opportunities across all the customer segments, from cloud providers to service providers and enterprises. Now, customers will have access to both Juniper networking and HPE Aruba networking solutions, all from a single company,” he said.
Rahim added that although it was day one of the combined networking operation, which doubles the existing effort HPE had been offering, it was already clear that there would be opportunities from bringing together Aruba and Juniper technologies.
“We’re just getting started, but I can tell you my objective here, as the leader of this combined networking business, is to build the best networking business on the planet, one that’s founded in innovation. And we plan on doing this first by starting to focus on our customers and partners. We’re seeing great momentum in both the Juniper portfolio and HPE Aruba networking, and we want to protect that,” he said.
“I’m rolling up my sleeves and starting on a customer- and market-focused, thoughtful integration strategy, and we’re going to be guided in that work that we’re starting now by a true north, which is around secure AI-native and cloud-native networking,” he added.
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