Aruba Networks, a unit of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, today at the Atmosphere 2018 conference extended its technology alliance program as part of an effort to motivate partners to expand their approach to selling wireless networking solutions.
The ArubaEdge Technology Alliance Program now includes Herman Miller, a manufacturer of connected furniture, and CBRE, one of the largest real estate companies in the world. The decision to include both companies in the program is part of an effort to embed wireless technologies within a selling motion that is specifically designed to appeal to line of business executives (LOBs), says Janice Le, vice president of global marketing for Aruba.
Other new additions to ArubaEdge program include vendors that focus on digital workspace applications such as AccelTex, HPE Pointnext, Lunera, Patrocinium, and SpaceIQ.
The goal is to enable partners to have access to providers of applications and services that will enable them to become relevant to LOB executives that control large amounts of budget dollars, say Le.
“If partners don’t find a way to relevant to those LOB executives they’re going to be left out,” says Le.
At the conference this week Aruba also unveiled new offerings that take advantage of machine learning algorithms to substantially reduce the total cost of maintaining a network, which should enable partners to service more customers without necessarily adding headcount. The company also announced the acquisition of Cape Networks to further its Internet of Things (IoT) ambitions. Cape Networks provides networking software for sensors.
Finally, Aruba also signaled its intent to add a software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) capability to its existing controllers and access points that would be enabled via the cloud.
The rise of machine learning algorithms may prove to be a double-edged sword for solution providers. On the one hand, the cost of supporting and servicing networks is about to drop substantially. In addition, the number of customers a solution provider can effectively support should rise substantially without having to hire additional technicians.
On the other hand, it’s only a matter of time before the price of those services drops or, in many cases, end customers might decide that paying extra for some services is no longer necessary. Solution providers to add value will need to create a broader array of networking applications.
Aruba claims to have a 20 percent market share for wireless networks in North America on a revenue base of over $2.5 billion. The HPE unit’s sales grew 15 percent year over year. However, competition across the networking space is fierce. To sustain the growth rate Aruba needs to expand the total available market for wireless networking by developing new digital business applications that, as it happens, also require help and much wider variety of technology partners to sell, support and maintain.
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