Exclusive Networks has added Aerohive Networks to its line card in North America in the wake of the provider of wireless networks being acquired by Extreme Networks.
The specialty distributor focuses primarily on cybersecurity but with the acquisition of Aerohive Networks by Extreme Networks the opportunity to extend the scope of existing relationships with both companies in Europe to include North America is now presenting itself, says Tim Kubiak, vice president of sales for Exclusive Networks.
That opportunity consists of not just selling network infrastructure, but also layering security software and services on top of Aerohive wireless networks, notes Kubiak.
“There’s a lot of security that goes into wireless,” says Kubiak.
Exclusive Networks says Aerohive Networks provides partners with an opportunity to provide an alternative to over distributed rival offerings such as Meraki from Cisco that don’t provide partners with the same level of margin opportunity as Aerohive Networks, adds Kubiak.
The acquisition of Aerohive Networks also presents partners with the opportunity to bundle the sale of switches and other networking equipment from Extreme Networks with the wireless access points from Aerohive Networks.
Longer term, it’s not clear yet to what degree wireless networks and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) will converge in the branch office. While several Aerohive Networks rivals are clearly headed in that direction, Kubiak says he expects that acquisition of those two distinct classes of networking technologies to remain separate for the foreseeable future.
At the same time, the shift to managing all types of networks via the cloud will continue to accelerate, says Kubiak. The challenge and opportunity for channel partners is to not only resell the underlying infrastructure that enables that transition, but also provide the much higher margin services required to manage them.
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