HPE Has Doubled Networking Sales Team As It Moves To Take Share

‘We are appreciative that HPE has moved fast,’ says Myriad360 President and CEO Jay Miley. ‘It is going to make it much easier for a partner like us to navigate a big organization.’

HPE has doubled the size of both its networking sales team and channel sales reps as it moves at a pace that rivals any other company in the market to take share in the networking market, said HPE Vice President of North America Channel Jeremiah Jenson.

“We have doubled our sales force on both sides,” said Jenson in an interview with CRN. “We also have partners who had great ability on both sides [Aruba and Juniper]. So we are bringing that capability together with our larger sales force to go talk to more customers and to go solve larger business problems and to go take share in the market.”

The doubling down on the sales offensive comes as HPE steps up its battle to grab market share against rival Cisco Systems with a pumped-up sales team that has been united into a single sales force in the wake of its $13.4 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks last July.

HPE is moving at a breakneck pace both with its cross-pollination strategy to unite Juniper and Aruba networking portfolios and in the field to unite the sales teams and partner networks from both organizations into a unified team.

“I would say the decisions that we are making and the pace at which we are innovating would rival that of anybody in the market,” said Jenson.

Jenson said HPE has “very big goals” for the networking business and is sharply focused on how it can get there faster working with partners. “That comes down to who are the partners with the capabilities, the partners with the certifications and the partners that have invested in a networking go-to-market,” said Jenson. He said the HPE integrated sales team is working to help partners integrate the Juniper and Aruba sales go-to-market motion.

“We are bringing all those people together into a single unified team,” he said. “We call it HPE Networking now because they are selling the full portfolio. There is no split between selling these products and those products. Every salesperson is responsible for the full portfolio. That’s why I say that this is not a theoretical integration. This is actual integration, and that is done.”

One reason for the HPE sales momentum fast out of the gate in the new HPE fiscal year, which started Nov. 1, is the HPE Networking Sales Kickoff that was held in January in Las Vegas that by all accounts left the HPE sales teams fired up and ready to take the market by storm.

HPE Executive Vice President and CMO Jennifer Temple said in a LinkedIn post that the vibe at the kickoff was “electric” with the more than 4,000 team members “aligned around one mission: win the AI era together.”

Temple said in the post that the sales team left Las Vegas “ready to win” with new tools, deeper insight and a shared conviction: “This team refuses to settle for second and is ready to bring the full power of HPE’s portfolio and expertise to unlock incredible outcomes for customers and partners.”

Partners, for their part, said they are charged up by just how fast HPE is moving in lockstep with them to drive networking sales growth.

Bringing the Juniper and Aruba teams together and the sales teams that comprise both organizations under “unified leadership is an extremely smart move,” said Jay Miley, president and CEO of New York-based Myriad360, No. 100 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500.

“We are appreciative that HPE has moved fast,” he said. “It is going to make it much easier for a partner like us to navigate a big organization. It’s just a beautiful move that they have done this as quickly as they have because we know who to go to get things done.”

Miley singled out Chris Collins, vice president and general manager of U.S. East Sales for HPE, for helping drive sales alignment in the field. “We are tied at the hip with HPE,” he said. “Chris has just been outstanding in terms of how he has engaged with us. We have built a strong relationship with him and his entire leadership team. We have rhythm with them already. We were a Juniper partner, and they have done a great job bringing us into the fold. I commend them.”

On the channel side, Miley said he has known channel leaders [HPE Aruba Vice President of Channels] Jim Harold and [Worldwide Vice President of Channel and Partner Ecosystem Networking Sales] Ben Fallon for many years. “They do what they say and they are consistent,” he said.

Miley said both HPE and Cisco are benefiting from growth in the networking market right now. “It’s not an either/or,” he said. “It’s a function of what’s right for the client’s environment given what their legacy investments have been. Both are awesome companies and they will be successful not for the short term but for years to come.”

CIOs and enterprise IT buyers are going to evaluate HPE and Cisco networking as they plan their IT strategies for the AI era, said Miley. “AI is creating explosive data center growth,” he said. “That is not going to stop. Both companies are going to do great. We love the fact we have solid partnerships with both organizations and others too. I would put Arista into that mix as well. Rising tides lift all boats.”

Patrick Shelley, CTO at PKA Technologies, a Montvale, N.J.-based solution provider, said HPE has hit the “ground running” with a clear joint HPE-Aruba product road map backed up by an all-out AI networking sales offensive.

“From a partner perspective, it’s exciting to see how fast HPE brought everything under a single umbrella with a combined sales force so quickly,” said Shelley. “Before HPE made this move, it was two different companies. Now HPE has a unified platform no matter which route you go [Juniper or Aruba]. HPE has really outdone themselves in terms of how fast they have moved to bring this all together. ... They see an opportunity to seize a market that has been stagnant for the longest time.”

Shelley called the combined HPE Aruba and Juniper product set a “best-of-breed” alternative to networking heavyweight Cisco. “This is disruptive,” he said of the AI networking innovation HPE is bringing to the market. “Customers are champing at the bit for a true alternative to what is out there. They want to see how HPE can make things easier and integrate AI into the network. This is not the same old networking business.”

The HPE networking sales charge has created an excitement among customers anxious to learn more about the combined HPE-Juniper networking portfolio. “A large part of our customer base is looking for briefings on the new HPE-Juniper networking portfolio,” he said. “They are excited to see the innovation.”