SD-WAN FEATURED ARTICLE
Silver Peak Acquisition Solidifies Full Spectrum Enterprise Networking Portfolio
SD-WAN is growing up before our eyes, this quickly maturing space is consolidating, as this week we witnessed HPE announced the acquisition of Silver Peak for a valued $925 million. In adding award winning SD-WAN technology to an already robust Aruba portfolio it’s difficult not to predict big things.
Michael Dickman, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Technical Marketing for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company took some time recently to unpack the acquisition a bit, and offer a preview of what may lie ahead.
Dickman explained, “Our customers have three main needs: Branch Transformation requiring a holistic wired/wireless/WAN solution; Remote Work solutions requiring easy deployment of connectivity from the end-user to applications wherever they may be; and WAN Transformation requiring enablement of Hybrid WANs with automation and application experience capabilities.”
While Aruba supports the first two demands exceptionally well, Silver Peak (News - Alert) completes the puzzle with the WAN Edge Infrastructure piece.
“With Silver Peak, Aruba will be able to support the full spectrum of enterprise networking challenges around Branch, Remote Work, and WAN, and will be the only vendor placed as a leader in the Gartner (News - Alert) Magic Quadrants for both Wired & Wireless LAN, and WAN Edge, Dickman continued.”
The companies will operate separately with “business as usual” until the acquisition closes – likely Q4 2020. Once closed, Silver Peak CEO and Founder David Hughes (News - Alert) will “lead a combined business unit within Aruba that will include the Silver Peak SD-WAN solution, as well as Aruba SD-Branch and Remote Work solutions,” noted Dickman.
While the pandemic continues to challenge service providers, it also puts things in perspective. Dickman explained, the pandemic didn’t play a role in the acquisition per say but, “It certainly accelerates the need for us to support our customers who have had to transition their workforce to remote or hybrid work environments. Given the current situation, it’s more important than ever to take a holistic approach to how employees, guests, and devices connect with data and applications from Edge to Cloud. Enterprise-grade access that delivers reliable and secure access to their cloud applications is critical for both branch and home workers so that they can remain safe and productive.”
In 2018, HPE bet big on Intelligent Edge, planning to invest $4 billion in Intelligent Edge technologies and services over the next four years, with Aruba serving as the foundation. With the recently unveiled, cloud-native Aruba ESP customers can unleash AI and automation on security and the connectivity experience and the Silver Peak purchase is following suit, ushering in a complete edge to cloud vision.
What does this mean for the industry? Is this Cloud Wars 2.0? “It’s really anyone’s guess, but what I can tell you is that we’re at an inflection point in the customer adoption cycle of SD-Branch and SD-WAN technologies, so it’s certainly an exciting time to be in networking,” Dickman responded.
The coming months in the SD-WAN space should prove telling, as consolidation isn’t over and HPE is aimed at surrounding its Aruba investment with the best in the space.
Edited by Maurice Nagle