“Our peers in the industry have taken years to try to figure out how to integrate portfolios and we are showing our customers much to their amazement that we can do it in a much, much less period of time,” said HPE Networking President Rami Rahim. “So watch this space!”
HPE is in the midst of a “grand plan” to “cross-pollinate” the Aruba and Juniper Mist AIOps networking portfolios with the aim to bring the robust capabilities from one to the other by leveraging their respective microservices-based architectures, said HPE Networking President and General Manager Rami Rahim.
“We can keep these platforms and their unique deployment capabilities in place and start to cross-pollinate,” said Rahim in a question-and-answer session at the HPE Securities Analyst meeting on Wednesday. “Mist has done amazing work in the AIOps space. I can take that as a microservice and apply it to Aruba. Aruba has done great work in security integration. That can be a microservice that can be applied to Mist. In so doing, what have I done? I have accelerated the overall pace of innovation on both platforms. I have made my engineering more efficient because I don’t need to develop something twice. I can develop it once and deploy it twice. So that is the grand plan that we are working on right now.”
Rahim’s comments are the first indication of exactly how the integration of the two AIOps-based networking portfolios will proceed in the wake of HPE’s $13.4 billion blockbuster acquisition of Juniper, which was completed in July.
Rahim, the former CEO of Juniper Networks who joined HPE to head up the networking business after the acquisition, said he found himself with a “bit of an embarrassment of riches” with “two great” networking platforms when he joined HPE. “Honestly now that I have had an opportunity to look under the covers on the Aruba side I am really impressed,” he said.
Rahim (pictured above) said that the two respective AIOps platforms have their own “unique strengths” and capabilities. “Mist is a public cloud-only AIOps platform so as great as Mist was in AIOps capabilities, we were shut out of any opportunities that required different deployment models like private cloud or virtual private cloud networking or even on-prem,” he said. “When I looked at Aruba, they have actually made more progress in areas like security integration, agentic AI capabilities. So they really have unique strengths.”
The microservices-based architectures of both AIOps platforms makes it “actually quite straightforward to take microservices from one and apply it to the other,” he said.
Rahim said the “industry has been tainted” by the integration track record of other companies in the business that have taken years to integrate technology portfolios in the wake of an acquisition.
“Our peers in the industry have taken years to try to figure out how to integrate portfolios and we are showing our customers much to their amazement that we can do it in a much, much less period of time,” he said. “So watch this space!”
HPE CEO Antonio Neri, for his part, said HPE’s GreenLake hybrid cloud platform will also play a key role in the integration with its common cloud platform and services. “As we go through that journey that Rami just described cross-pollinating and doing things once, that convergence happens very naturally,” he said. “That user interface will become one at some point. But no customer gets left behind. They are very excited about that and then they get more faster!”
HPE will complete integrating sales teams by the first quarter of 2026, said HPE Chief Financial Officer Marie Myers. As for channel integration, Myers said HPE will continue to “align channel programs and sales tools through next year so that we can enable partners to sell the full portfolio and unlock further growth.”
As for the “product rationalization,” Myers said HPE plans to “take a very measured approach” to “preserve” customer experience. That said, HPE does plan to begin “aligning R&D spend” to strategic priorities while “converging product road maps and eliminating duplicate R&D projects,” she said.
“We are leveraging the combined scale of HPE and Juniper to unlock efficiencies in logistics, materials pricing, warehousing and repair services,” she said. “We expect to begin realizing these synergies in the first half of 2026.”
In addition, HPE is also refining its manufacturing footprint with a plan to align head count to “go-forward operational needs,” she said.
HPE expects to realize $200 million in Juniper-related cost synergies in the first year of the combined business with another $200 million in year two and $200 million in year three. “While workforce reductions are always challenging, they are necessary,” she said.
In addition, HPE is driving another $300 million in cost-savings synergies from its Catalyst transformation initiative.
Overall, HPE is looking to drive $1 billion in structural cost savings via Juniper synergies and the Catalyst program.
“Our teams are hyper-focused on achieving structural cost savings through Juniper-related synergies and Catalyst initiatives,” she said. “Our two targeted sets of actions are designed to increase productivity, capture efficiencies and unlock operating leverage that will drive long-term sustained profitability.”
For Fiscal Year 2026, HPE said it expects non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.20 to $2.40 per share on revenue growth of five to 10 percent with networking sales in the low-to-mid single-digits. HPE shares fell nine percent to $22.80 in after-hours trading on the forecast.
Referring to the low mid-to-single-digit growth rate for networking, Neri said while campus and branch networking have “momentum,” it is going to “take time” for AI data center switching sales to kick in because of the technical proof points that must be proven to win those deals. Furthermore, he said, HPE is integrating the networking assets with its compute and storage portfolios. “We want to make sure we give the team time to do that and also we have a big sales harmonization that is taking place at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2026,” he said.
C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Independence, Ohio-based Advizex, No. 129 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500, a Fulcrum IT Partners company, applauded the “no customer left behind” strategy HPE is putting in place with the Aruba and Juniper businesses. “It all comes down to how we collaborate to benefit the customer,” he said. “HPE has the tools. The challenge will be to collaborate, so no customer is left behind.”
Howdyshell said networking remains one of the biggest opportunities for Advizex going forward with a plan to double that business in three years or less. “HPE has a big opportunity with networking,” he said. “They just need to pull it all together with the right sales leadership and channel support.”
Howdyshell praised HPE for bringing together a full portfolio approach to as-a-service with networking, storage and compute. In fact, he said, HPE Aruba Sales Director Tom Depalma is working with Advizex on full HPE everything-as-a-service deals that comprise the full HPE portfolio. “Customers are intrigued by the potential savings of that full as-a-service solution with GreenLake and Aruba,” he said. “That go-to-market is resonating with our customers with a single point of accountability.”
