Hewlett Packard Enterprise on July 13 revealed its intention to amass SD-WAN and WAN optimization vendor Silver Peak for $925 million. In its announcement, HPE stated Silver Peak might be rolled into the Aruba enterprise unit, now referred to as HPE’s Intelligent Edge division and headed up by Keerti Melkote, Aruba’s founder. This is definitely no shock as a result of Aruba has been in WAN transformation for greater than a decade.
In 2009, Aruba launched its Remote Access Point (RAP), which was arguably one of many first SD-WAN merchandise. We weren’t utilizing the “SD” terminology then, however RAP was one of many first merchandise to leverage broadband as the first connectivity technique.
Silver Peak Compliments Aruba’s SD-Branch
Aruba’s present SD-WAN answer is focused at prospects which have purchased into the imaginative and prescient of “SD-Branch” that brings collectively SD-WAN plus department networking comparable to WiFi and switching in addition to the administration and analytic capabilities in Aruba Central. Silver Peak is a superb complement to Aruba as a result of it expands HPE’s addressable market to prospects who need to focus extra on WAN transformation.
Silver Peak has had an fascinating journey to being one of many mainstream SD-WAN distributors. The firm was born within the early days of WAN optimization however may by no means match the model recognition of Riverbed, which was publicly traded and had a CEO who wasn’t afraid to name the mainstream networking business “broken.” Also, a lot of the early Silver Peak enterprise was in information heart replication versus the broader WAN market.
Silver Peak aggressively went after SD-WAN early
Then alongside got here SD-WAN and Silver Peak confirmed good imaginative and prescient and management in making a tough pivot to that market whereas it was nonetheless in its infancy. At that point, WAN optimization was a lot greater however Silver Peak selected to disrupt itself and go after the rising market. The transfer paid off as the corporate obtained a terrific exit package deal as a result of the acquisition worth of $925 million equates to a few 7x a number of of its annual income.
For Aruba, Silver Peak rounds out its providing properly. As I discussed earlier than, Aruba was in a position to tackle the wants of shoppers who had been taking a look at department transformation holistically. Silver Peak is healthier suited to companies that need to rapidly migrate to an SD-WAN with expertise that may overlay on no matter is at the moment in place. This consists of pure broadband WANs in addition to hybrid networks that embrace some degree of MPLS mixed with broadband. Silver Peak’s SD-WAN additionally simplifies direct connectivity to clouds by way of cut up tunnels.
WAN optimization continues to be utilized by giant enterprises
I imagine the WAN optimization capabilities are a key asset of this acquisition, though it obtained no protection in any information story I learn. While SD-WAN is scorching and will get all of the headlines, giant enterprises are utilizing SD-WAN to enhance their world MPLS networks. This kind of WAN optimization provides MPLS a major efficiency enhance. WAN optimization isn’t as horny because it as soon as was however for giant corporations with world networks, it’s critically vital, and Aruba has lots of these organizations as prospects.
…
