By bringing EdgeConnect into Mist and Aruba Central, the company is betting AI-driven operations and unified management can help it stand apart from its networking rivals.
HPE is bringing its EdgeConnect SD-WAN and SASE platform directly into its Mist and Aruba Central platforms to give enterprises one agentic framework to manage their IT environments.
The move represents another milestone in HPE’s ongoing integration of Juniper and Aruba, using a common Marvis AI foundation across both platforms and adding SASE to expand management opportunities for partners.
HPE Networking EdgeConnect, which came about through the company’s acquisition of Silver Peak technology in 2020, offers SD-WAN and SSE for the secure connection of branch locations and employees to applications. The combination with Mist and Aruba Central will help HPE expand its so-called “self-driving” networking strategy beyond wired and wireless networking, while giving IT execs a unified approach to AI networking and security, according to Mittal Parekh, senior director, product and solutions marketing for HPE.
“Essentially, we’ve had our campus and branches and data center covered, and now we are adding another dimension to our self-driving story, and that is the SASE part,” said Parekh (pictured).
[Related: HPE Networking Chief Rahim: ‘Partner Day One’ Creates Major Cross-Selling Opportunity For Partners]
By bringing HPE Networking EdgeConnect into HPE Mist and HPE Aruba Central, SASE customers will gain HPE Marvis, the AI engine and assistant used across the entire HPE network. At the same time, existing HPE Mist and HPE Aruba Central customers will gain integrated access to advanced unified SASE capabilities, such as application-aware routing, WAN optimization, integrated security, and Security Service Edge (SSE) integration, HPE said.
Customers and partners using HPE’s full networking stack will gain end-to-end visibility across wired, wireless and SASE environments, enabling faster troubleshooting and management across on-premises, cloud and virtual private cloud deployments, the company said.
“Now we are able to take EdgeConnect telemetry into AI-driven operations across both Mist and Central. It gives us visibility insights, root cause identification, recommendations and supported action, to the point that we are now able to deliver self-driving actions on WAN connectivity,” Parekh said.
The SASE integration simplifies operations for both partners and end customers by providing a single management platform across Mist and Aruba Central, and customers are always looking to simplify their operations, said Allyn Crowe, principal engineer for Nexum Inc., a Hammond, Ind.-based HPE partner.
“I really think, especially for Mist customers, it’s going to bring them that much stronger SD-WAN play, and then beyond that to ultimately SASE, which will be really nice. EdgeConnect was somewhat integrated in Central, but getting it fully integrated and streamlined is going to really help operations, which just helps with adoption,” he said.
Crowe has been an early believer in self-driving networking and automated remediation. One of Mist’s biggest advantages was that AI and automation were built into the platform from the beginning rather than bolted on later. It’s that foundation, he said, that is helping customers realize the practical benefits of self-driving networking today.
While Nexum works with most major networking vendors, including Cisco, Crowe sees HPE gaining an edge in certain customer environments because of its innovation around AI-driven networking and automation.
“As a technologist, I got interested in Mist because I saw that they were doing something different. Seeing the path that they have gone down has been awesome,” Crowe said.
HPE is positioning the announcement as another step in its effort to differentiate against Cisco by extending AI-driven automation beyond the campus network and into SD-WAN and SASE environments.
HPE’s Parekh said that today’s HPE networks are capable of detecting issues, identifying root causes, taking corrective action, and validating fixes, all without a human in the loop, which is a point of differentiation for the networking market heavyweight.
“We still remain the only vendor delivering self-driving networks, and basically what that means is these networks are able to understand what’s going on in the network, they are able to find the root cause analysis, and they are able to literally fix themselves and then validate that the fix has gone in,” he said. It’s something that HPE isn’t just talking about; it’s also [being] delivered to customers right now, he added.
HPE said it is focused on ensuring that both Mist and Aruba Central benefit from innovations developed across the combined portfolio, a process described as “cross-pollination,” Parekh said.
“We are at a point where we call one brain, two bodies. Marvis AI happens to be our brain, and you can think of Mist and Aruba Central as two different bodies,” he said.
HPE Networking EdgeConnect integration with HPE Mist will be available before the end of 2026. HPE Networking EdgeConnect integration with HPE Aruba Central will be available in the first half of 2027.
