Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has closed a deal to buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion, after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) recently granted approval, effectively doubling the size of its networking business. In a briefing, HPE president and CEO Antonio Neri and former Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim provided colour on integration efforts and the possible future impact of the combined entity.
The combination positions HPE to capture more of the growing AI and hybrid cloud market by creating a cloud-native and AI-driven IT portfolio including a full, modern networking stack. The company will reach large adjacent markets including data centres, firewalls and routers.
“We will have an organisation that integrates at the functional level and obviously at the business unit level, which obviously has the engineering, the product management, all the typical type of activities”, Neri said. “And at the corporate function level, the Juniper team will be integrated inside the HPE corporate structure”.
The plan is to offer a full networking stack which includes hardware, silicon, the operation system, software and services, AI for networks and vice-versa. “We’re not just building a stronger company. We are establishing an industry powerhouse with vision, scale and innovation to define and lead the future, one that will serve our customers and partners better than ever,” Neri explained.
Rahim is now the president and GM of the combined networking business, which includes HPE Networking, HPE Juniper Networking and HPE Aruba Networking. “My objective here as the leader of this combined networking business is to build the best networking business really 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”.
Rahim is “rolling up my sleeves” and “starting on a customer and market focused, thoughtful integration strategy”.
“We’re starting now via true north, which is around secure, AI-native and cloud-native networking”. Rahim and Neri emphasised no customers would be left behind as the combined entity moves forward.
DoJ concessions
The executives firmly denied concessions made to the DoJ to get the deal approved would have any impact on the competitiveness of the new entity. One of those conditions includes HPE licensing Juniper’s AI Ops for Mist source code used in WLAN systems through an auction process.
Neri said the code IP would remain with HPE, which will continue to support it. “As it pertains to Mist, this is a licensing, this is not a divestiture”.
Rahim said the Mist team would continue to innovate as part of HPE, with work accelerating due to a combination with HPE Aruba Networking.
The DoJ also required HPE to sell its Aruba Instant On WLAN (WLAN) campus and branch network switching business, including all assets, IP, R&D personnel and customer relationships. Neri said the business had been built over the past three years and is “completely separate from the rest of the traditional HPE Aruba platform or Aruba Central”.
The unit targets SMBs and is “a very small business for us”. Rahim stated the combination of the companies’ WLAN portfolios would pose a new challenge for Cisco, pointing to a comprehensive “secure, AI-native client-to-cloud portfolio for networking products”.
Neri believes the company faces competition from about seven US companies with more rivals overseas. “I think this combination will create more competition and more innovation”. Neri said HPE integrated its channel partner programmes last week at its HPE Discover conference. “So now HPE has one comprehensive channel programme, which includes all aspects of our business. And then over time, we’re going to integrate the Juniper channel programme to be able to sell the entire portfolio because obviously we want to make sure that they [customers] take advantage of everything the new networking business has to offer.”
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: HPE & Juniper Networks
