Joining Forces  

Market consolidation strikes again.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, on Monday unveiled its plans to acquire software-defined WAN leader Silver Peak for approximately $925 million in cash. But this isn’t a situation involving an incumbent vendor bolting on a new technology from an agile startup. Instead, it’s two market leaders – one in the wireless space and one in the SD-WAN space – coming together to strengthen the positions of both their portfolios.

Under HPE, Silver Peak will be able to reach brand-new markets in regions it wasn’t in before. And for Aruba Networks, the deal will give the networking specialist a full SD-WAN offering that can solve the needs of all customers. And It doesn’t hurt that both companies have historically been channel-first in their approach to the market.

Michael Dickman, senior vice president, product management and technical marketing for Aruba, sat down with CRN to talk about why the company chose Silver Peak, how the combination will give its competitors -- including Cisco and VMware -- a run for their money, and how the deal will benefit channel partners.

Here are five things to know about the HPE-Silver Peak acquisition, as described by Dickman.