The HPE-Aruba tandem is getting stronger every year, and thanks to recent acquisitions, Aruba is even more focused on SD-WAN and SASE.

During the Belgian edition of Aruba Atmosphere in Brussels, heavy beats blast from the speakers as we watch a trending video of someone putting on orange sneakers and discovering another dimension. It goes without saying that Aruba offers this dimension, but unfortunately there are no sports shoes in the goodie bag.

What Aruba delivers is country manager Jerry Garcia on stage. In his keynote he points to the future. “We have to be ready for what comes. After Covid there is now a partial return to the office, NIS2 is coming, there will be a lot.”

Two important acquisitions in 2023

In his story he talks about three important pillars: security, management of the environment and flexibility towards partners. Security speaks for itself and has always been a priority for Aruba, but thanks to recent acquisitions it is now given even greater importance. By environmental management he means Aruba Central and the completely new interface. When it comes to flexibility, he points out to all partners present that Aruba can also be used as a NaaS, Network-as-a-Service.

“Sustainability is central to all of this. We put what we receive back on the market. We want to make this investment in the future possible for our customers and partners. This approach will be crucial for our generation.”

In his keynote, he also briefly highlights two important acquisitions, Athonet for Private 5G and Axis for SASE. Later more.

HPE as a unique tandem

Aruba is HPE and vice versa. Stephane Lahaye, MD Belux of HPE, points out the unique advantage of both brands: each other. NaaS, like Aruba Networking Central, runs on HPE Greenlake, and it’s not for nothing that their motto today is “Edge to Cloud”. HPE Aruba can deliver projects with synergies that competitors cannot match.

“We want to connect your edge and respond to the data generated everywhere with faster insights and actions. Form a hybrid cloud and offer seamless access to all this data.” He refers here to data sovereignty, but also to compliance and governance. “Ultimately, you also need to protect this data using a zero trust approach.”

In his keynote, Lahaye proudly points to a project with AG Insurance where they helped migrate 75 million lines of Cobalt code from a mainframe to an open system. “These are the challenges we face today.”

Private 5G

We’re focusing on Aruba again. HPE is hosting its Discover event in Barcelona later this year, where the company can be in the spotlight. In all other keynotes and sessions, you’ll notice that Aruba took an important step forward in 2023 thanks to two acquisitions: Athonet and Axis Security.

The acquisition of Athonet is intended to enable HPE to make private 5G networks part of its GreenLake offering. HPE is therefore targeting both enterprises and telecommunications providers as customers. Athonet brings expertise and experience in core network rollouts to support such an offering.

Athonet knows what it’s doing. The company has been active for fifteen years and during this time has rolled out networks for more than 450 customers in various industries. IDC predicts that the private 5G market will grow significantly in the coming years, reaching $1.6 billion by 2026. With the acquisition of Athonet, HPE wants to strengthen its position in order to benefit from it.

“Private 5G will be an important asset in our portfolio. Complex environments such as ports can use our technology to seamlessly switch from 5G to WiFi6 and vice versa. This was a critical step for Aruba to complete its portfolio.”

SASE, but without traditional PoPs

Axis Security offers a comprehensive SASE security solution. The acquisition closed in March 2023 and its technology is already included across HPE Aruba technology today. Jaye Tillson, Field CTO at Aruba, is the only keynote speaker, taking the stage in the same flashy orange sneakers seen in the introductory video. They look comfortable… but that’s not why we’re here.

He points out that HPE was certainly not the first to introduce SASE (read what SASE is here), but in his opinion that doesn’t matter. HTC was also first, but it was the iPhone that conquered the world. According to Gartner, 45 percent of customers in Europe are considering SASE in the next 12 to 18 months. That’s why Aruba has SSE today.

Aruba SSE is complete agentlessYou don’t need to install anything.

Jaye Tillson, Field CTO at Aruba

Unlike other SASE vendors that work with PoPs, Aruba leverages the backbone of today’s hyperscalers. “We use the power of the infrastructure of hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform. You can control four different PoPs per agent. Nobody else does it like that.”

“The practical thing is that Aruba SSE is complete agentless That means you don’t have to install anything.” Tillson points out that SASE is a vision, but it shouldn’t be installed with a bang. “

Step by step, no big bang

We can write a lot about Aruba SSE and its unique nature, but we will follow that later in a detailed article. The most important thing, according to Tillson, is to do everything step by step and not all at once.

“Start evolving from an MPLS network to SD-WAN to enable hybrid workforces to connect securely. Always frame SD-WAN more broadly. SASE and Zerotrust are Travel. We supply the elements, but you choose the starting point. Be it an MPLS migration, the elimination of VPN or something else.”

We supply the elements, but you choose the starting point.

While we wrote last year after the Atmosphere event that Aruba was shaping the network of the future, this year it’s much further along than we thought. Aruba Central Next Generation is knocking on the door as a very accessible and rich web interface and with the acquisitions this year, SASE and Private 5G are suddenly a fact. Together with the all-rounder HPE, this creates an interesting combination.