Partners View HPE-Juniper Deal with Cautious Optimism

As the dust settles from HPE announcing its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, channel partners from both companies are waiting to see how the companies will integrate their product portfolios, and how long that will take.

HPE announced the megaacquisition Tuesday afternoon. The deal will slot Juniper into the Aruba networking business and challenge both company's larger rival Cisco.

And for channel partners, the marriage could give them more ammo in customer engagements.

"If I was going into a fight before, I had one gun: Aruba," Allen Advisers Group CEO Philip Allen told Channel Futures. "Maybe I sell some of these others as well, like Arista. But now it's almost like I've got a double-barrel gun that I can come to the fight with."

Philip Allen

Partners on the HPE side say they could benefit from an infusion of AI capabilities in Juniper's Mist AIOps platform. But it remains to be seen how exactly Juniper's portfolio will match with elements of the Aruba business. They have historically competed with each other in certain areas, partners said.

"It should be an interesting journey as they merge the organizations and then rationalize the products that HPE and Juniper already have come out with the final set of solutions that they're combining," said Juan Orlandini, Insight Enterprises' chief technology officer for North America.

Insight's Juan Orlandini

For Juniper, HPE brings a deep base of partners that can sell its offerings. And Juniper partners will expand their portfolio as a result of the deal.

Orlandini said he's taking a wait-and-see approach to the acquisition, which should close at the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025. But he said he views the acquisition positively.

"It's healthy for both of those organizations. I think it's healthy for the industry," Orlandini told Channel Futures.

Read more about Orlandini and Allen's perspectives on the HPE-Juniper acquisition in the slideshow above.