How will they practically fall within the proposal of HPE Aruba Networking the announcements made at the global event Atmosphere 23 which was held at the end of April in Las Vegas? And what impact will they have on the IT infrastructures of Italian companies? The company detailed this in a press briefing.
A new edge-to-cloud services company
First of all, it should be noted that the innovations presented are part of the strategy outlined by president and CEO of HPE Antonio Neri, who in 2019 he was busy to supply the entire portfolio of solutions as a service by 2022. Last year the goal was achieved and Neri stated: ”I’m proud to say that we have not only delivered on that commitment, but also that we have become a new company. Our portfolio empowers organizations to move forward a modernization data-centric for all workloads, from edge to cloud”. And what was presented in Las Vegas adds further pieces to the vision aimed at providing the market with a platform to drive innovation and drive transformation. This time the area of networking and, more generally, connectivity is being examined. The intent is to have an offer capable of satisfying the growing demand for integrated network and security solutions as-a-service.
Safety first
One of the main challenges is security. “HPE Aruba helps address it through a complete offer, able to protect companies at 360°, so as to meet the growing demand for integrated network and security solutions as-a-service“, he precised Edoardo Accenti, country manager HPE Aruba Networking Italy. This. Thanks also to some acquisitions, such as that of Axis Security, which made it possible to expand the edge-to-cloud security functions through a unified Secure Access Services Edge (Sase) solution from an as-a-service perspective, or that of Silver Peak (2020) which deals with SDWan and allows you to increase competitiveness in the field of wired and wireless networks and Wan Edge Infrastructure.
A third acquisition related to the issue of security, and which will be completed by 2023, is that of the company Athonet of Vicenza which operates in the context of private 5G and 4G connectivity. “It does not replace the proposition on which Aruba has made its foundation, i.e. the entire wi-fi world – specified Accenti – but you go to integrate for meet the needs in those applications where wi-fi proves to be technologically inadequate. Use cases can be stadiums, large spaces, construction sites and the healthcare world. It’s one of those beautiful cases where we bring an Italian heritage and spread it to the rest of the world”.
Engineering and reuse at the basis of sustainability
Another of the aspects that HPE focuses a lot of attention on is the concept of sustainability. “In its various declinations – specified Accenti -, that is, both from the point of view of engineering choiceswhich therefore allow you to have a long life cycle of products and solutions, both of initiatives that allow reuse and give new life to the equipment. Also network as a service models they also allow for sustainability in terms of reuse of material that is no longer used in a given context or in a given company and can instead be used in other situations. More than 85% of the devices that HPE recalls have been reused”.
The role of artificial intelligence
A technology that is not born today but in which HPE Aruba has been investing for some time is theartificial intelligence. The focus is such that it has led to a next generation Aruba Central which is based precisely on principles of machine learning and artificial intelligence and which allows you to implement predictiveness and perform actions on the infrastructure before it can have problems. “Obviously we are talking about something much more sophisticated than a chat in which a question is formulated and an answer is obtained – Accenti argued -. It is the set of data collected in infrastructure management that allows a artificial intelligence engine like the one inside Aruba Central to function and prevent critical situations. Therefore, the more it evolves, the more this database allows you to implement actions based specifically on the type of company. There is much talk of data as a value, as part of the company’s assets. In this sense, it assumes great importance the entire process involving the transport of data from the edgewhich is our business, because the business of companies depends on it”.
The market requires agility
In a changing market like the current one, one aspect that cannot be ignored is the agility. “When it comes to companies, agility must be implicit in the speech and must be different according to the type of company – underlined Accenti -. Agility is a key element of infrastructure today and it is base choices that companies have to make. More and more often, companies require planning, so that all activities can be defined in advance. However, they must also be able to intervene quickly, to modify choices by adapting them to market changes that are very frequent in any sector”.
Agility then relates to the consumption of networking as a service. In this sense, new announcements will arrive in the coming months. They will concern ad hoc solutions for the different markets: it will be a sort of Prepackaged Service Packs to be able to cover different use cases.
A complete offer
Accenti underlined the three key concepts: agility, simplification and resource management with methods and principles based on artificial intelligence. “All concepts that HPE is integrating into the GreenLake platform – concluded the HPE Aruba Networking Italy country manager -, so from offer customers scalable services according to the different consumption methods. In this way, when we speak of digital transformation, of IT infrastructure in the broadest sense, therefore not only of the networking world, we are able to supply a solution that covers all the technological needs of our customers”.
New partner program for as a service
Product innovations also have an impact on commercial strategy. In fact, a new channel program has been launched, theHPE Partner Ready Vantage. For a few months that will complement the traditional Hpe Partner Ready for Networking until the full integration of the two is achieved. A step that became necessary in the face of an offer of services that today leads partners to operate according to three business models: CapEx, SaaS (purchase of software licenses and subscriptions) e NaaS (the pure purchase as a service of hardware, software and support). This situation implies an evolution of the role of the partners. Indeed, as stated Daniela Quagliarella, Italy channel sales manager of HPE Aruba Networking, “Customers no longer ask partners to help them purchase IT infrastructure, but rather to be consultants for networking. To be able to satisfy customer requests, partners have to shed their skin, they have to review their organizational structure to be able to focus also on value-added services, in order to integrate third-party solutions”.
HPE looks to facilitate this transformation with the new Partner Ready Vantage, a more flexible schedule which includes three categories of partnership: Build, Sell, Service. Build is the most important and most interesting “track” for traditional partners because it was designed for fill any skills gaps (through training and certifications) in order to enable the construction of the offer as a service. La track Sell is focused onacceleration of business as a service and is designed for partners who are already adopting XaaS. The third track, Service, is 100% dedicated to large system integrators who intend to convey a model as a service puroe foresees tre center of expertise: managed services, professional services, e costumer success. The latter track provides a series of prerequisites for a very important certification path.