Aruba Partner Conference: What Changes with HP Deal?

As I write this I am on a JetBlue flight from New York en route to Las Vegas for the Aruba Networks (ARUN) Atmosphere partner conference. (Kudos to JetBlue for finally getting wi-fi on its flights AND for not charging users.) Of course, 10 minutes before I boarded my flight, I received a press alert that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) had, indeed, announced its intention to acquire Aruba.

I suppose I knew it was coming—acquisitions sometimes are the worst-kept secret in IT. But I admit I expected the announcement to happen tomorrow, with company president CEO Dominic Orr dropping the news during the opening keynote. Getting the news today totally blew my plans of being ahead of the news and writing something ahead of the announcement. (Even if I had something ready, though, I still would have been behind, as our flight got off an hour later than scheduled. Which meant I wasn’t able to get to my laptop for an extra hour. So much for best-laid plans.)

No matter when the announcement, however, the news—as does any acquisition news—begs a few questions:

How will this impact Aruba’s channel partners? Of course, the answer depends on how HP decides to run Aruba once the deal closes. In a memo to partners today, Orr noted that “Until the deal closes, we will continue to operate as an independent company and there will be no changes to the way you do business with Aruba.” Come later this summer, when the deal is expected to close, however, things may be different—HP plans to operate Aruba as a subsidiary, part of HP Networking within HP’s Enterprise Group.

How might channel partners benefit from the deal? The obvious answer is partners now will have access to HP’s technology portfolio, from its x86 servers to its Helion OpenStack cloud platform and pretty much everything in between—not to mention HP’s powerhouse marketing and channel reach. And, of course, HP channel partners will have access to Aruba’s portfolio of top-notch wireless offerings. Beyond that, as the Magic 8 Ball says, “Cannot predict now.”

How do channel partners feel about the acquisition? Well, I’m about 40,000 feet above terra firma, so I’m not really in a position to answer that at the moment. But you can bet that’s a question I’ll be asking partners every chance I get. Meanwhile, any Aruba partners out there who want to let their feelings be known about the news should drop me a line at Charlene.O’[email protected] or reply in the comments below.

Watch this space—as Aruba Atmosphere kicks off later today I am sure I’m going to be very busy.