HPE Increases Networking Revenue Forecast In Wake of Juniper Networks Integration ‘Momentum’

‘The new combined networking team is performing exceptionally well,’ says HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

HPE is raising its revenue forecast for its networking business to $11 billion, representing mid-single-digit growth for the fiscal year, in the wake of its “momentum” integrating its $13.4 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, said HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

“We have an incredible portfolio,” said Neri in a conference call with analysts after HPE reported a whopping 150 percent increase in networking revenue to $2.8 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, the first full quarter with Juniper as part of the company. “In the campus and branch we continue to get tremendous traction. Both platforms are winning in the market.”

Neri said he was “pleased with the significant progress” the company has made in forming what he called a “new unified leader” in networking.

“In the five months since closing the transaction we have brought together our teams, technologies and go-to-market strategies and the response from our employees, customers, partners and the industry at large has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “They are already seeing the benefits of our combined portfolio, the innovation we are driving and the cohesive customer experience we now deliver. Across the industry, stakeholders have expressed enthusiasm for the combined companies’ ability to accelerate innovation, deliver greater value and help organizations build secure, modern and high-performance networks for the future. The new combined networking team is performing exceptionally well.”

The new guidance of mid-single digit growth is up from a two to five percent earlier forecast.

HPE also raised its non-GAAP earnings per share by five cents per share at the midpoint and its free cash flow by $100 million.

The new guidance comes after HPE this week unveiled at HPE Discover Barcelona a new innovation-packed combined Aruba and Juniper Networks networking portfolio that is receiving rave reviews from partners.

Neri, for his part, told analysts that he expects channel partners to play a big part in driving networking revenue acceleration. “They are all super excited about that part of the business,” he said. “We had major wins on both sides (Aruba and Juniper). We expect that to continue in 2026.”

The stronger networking revenue guidance comes with HPE set as of January 1 to unify its Aruba and Juniper networking sales teams into a single organization with a new “unified sales compensation plan promoting consistency across the integrated networking team,” said HPE Chief Financial Officer Marie Myers.

“These actions position us well to build on the momentum we have established and capitalize on the significant market opportunities ahead,” she said.

HPE’s networking business will account for more than 50 percent of the company’s operating profit for the year.

“This company in 2026 will be at the core a networking-centric company, which is the core foundation by which we deliver both cloud and AI solutions for all segments of the market whether it is sovereign, enterprise or service providers,” Neri said in an interview with CRN before the conference call with analysts.

The new combined HPE Aruba and Juniper product blitz moves key AI networking capabilities from Juniper Mist to HPE Aruba Networking Central and at the same time moves HPE Aruba AI technology to Juniper Mist.

Neri said one of the keys to the rapid integration of the two networking product sets is that both Aruba and Juniper are modern network architectures. “Both are microservices, API driven, cloud native and AI was used from the beginning on both sides of the fence,” he said. “You have an advantage there so you can cross-pollinate very, very quickly both platforms.”

Under the cross-pollination strategy, HPE Juniper Networking’s renowned Mist AI Large Experience Model and Marvis AI virtual assistant will be available in the first quarter next year on HPE Networking Central.

In addition, HPE Aruba’s AI-based client profiling capabilities and AI organizational insight functionality will move in the first quarter next year to HPE Juniper Mist.

The product blitz also includes what HPE is calling the “world’s highest performance Ultra Ethernet Transport Ready” network switch: the 100 percent liquid-cooled HPE Juniper Networking QFX5250, which will be available in the first quarter.

Dan Molina, co-president and CTO of Nth Generation, San Diego, No. 307 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500, said he has been blown away by how quickly HPE has brought a combined Aruba-Juniper networking portfolio to the market. “Historically when there are acquisitions, the integration takes quite a long time,” he said. “That’s not the case here. The acquisition was completed five months ago and HPE is set to release product in Q1 next year. That is quite impressive!”

Molina said the new combined portfolio makes HPE a “mighty force” in the networking market. “Juniper Networks brings HPE an AI-based networking platform in Mist that has been around for 10 years,” he said. “It’s a mature platform. AI is only as good as the data that is fed into it. Having a platform that has been around for 10 years means that it can be trusted a lot more than a new platform.”

Molina said he expects Nth Generation’s HPE business to grow more than 20 percent next year powered by the new combined Aruba-Juniper Networks portfolio and the AI opportunity.

“The opportunity is very significant for us because of the HPE acquisition of Juniper,” he said. “The Juniper-Aruba merger creates fresh opportunities for us. HPE also continues to provide quality AI solutions. We are seeing a growing pipeline of AI projects powered by HPE compute, storage and networking.”

Neri, for his part, said the payback for customers with the Juniper Aruba AI networking platform is dramatic given that it can reduce network trouble tickets by 90 percent. “That’s a huge, huge productivity savings for customers because they don’t need people managing networks,” he said. “And as we put more AI into this then you can automate and empower AI to take actions for you. That means less downtime, less opex to run these networks.”

Neri said customers are interested in a “modern” networking approach and an alternative to the status quo. “That’s why we are building a new networking leader in the market,” he said.

Overall for the quarter, HPE reported non-GAAP earnings per share of 62 cents per share on a 14 percent increase in sales to $9.7 billion. That compares with the Zacks consensus estimate of 59 cents per share on sales of $9.96 billion.

HPE shares were down $2.11 or nine percent in after-hours trading to $20.77.

Neri said he sees 2026 as a year to drive the “transformation” of HPE to new heights based on its new position as a network-centric company with a “modern, secure AI networking” portfolio. “Our strategy is working and the Juniper integration is working,” he said.

[Correction: This story incorrectly stated that HPE raised its networking business revenue forecast by $11 billion when it should have said the forecast was raised to $11 billion. CRN regrets the error.]