Aruba partners urged to target traditional branch office routers
The new Aruba SD-branch offering, unveiled at the HPE Discover conference, gives channel partners a way into the SD-WAN space, Aruba said; other news from the week.
Aruba partners have an opportunity to expand into the SD-WAN market with a new software-defined branch offering.
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise networking company, Aruba Networks, launched the product this week at the HPE Discover conference in Las Vegas. Aruba said the offering integrates branch gateways with Aruba Central, its cloud management platform, providing customers a central location for software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), wired and wireless networking, and policy enforcement.
"What we are hearing from our customers is they want a unified software-defined architecture that spans the entire branch to simplify branch deployments," said Lissa Hollinger, vice president of product and solution marketing at Aruba Networks, based in Santa Clara, Calif.
"Furthermore, [customers] are looking to modernize their branch architectures to ensure that what they are deploying today will support their journey to digital transformation around mobility, IoT and the increased adoption of cloud-based applications," she added.
With the Aruba SD-branch offering, Hollinger said Aruba partners have an opportunity to expand their footprint in customer accounts currently using Aruba Central to manage their WAN infrastructure. She noted that Aruba Central is used by more than 5,000 customers today.
Aruba partners can target another market dynamic: transitions from traditional branch office routers to SD-WAN.
"I am speaking specifically of the gorilla in the marketplace, Cisco," she said, adding that Cisco for the last 15 years has "owned the branch office routing market" with Integrated Services Routers. "Well, those ISRs are getting, candidly, a little long in the tooth and are up for a refresh. So, what we are beginning to see is that customers are reassessing how they address their branch office routing needs in the future."
Aruba partners can expect to soon see training for the SD-branch offering, with a certification to be released later this year, Hollinger said.
HPE introduces digital marketing assessment
HPE has launched a new assessment tool to help bolster partners' digital marketing capabilities.
Revealed at the HPE Global Partner Summit (GPS), held alongside the Discover event this week, HPE's digital marketing maturity assessment is part of an initiative to help partners gain proficiency in digital and social media marketing. HPE partners can use the assessment to gain insight into five areas of their current digital marketing standing: digital identity, organization commitment, analytical framework, customer relationship management, and campaign planning and execution. Once the assessment is taken, HPE provides recommendations for improvements.
"It is important for our partners to modernize their marketing and selling strategy in order to keep up with the changes that we are seeing with customers on a global scale," said Chris Ogburn, vice president of worldwide field and channel marketing at HPE, during the GPS conference.
The maturity assessment is part of a broader channel initiative under the HPE Digital Marketing Program. Through its recently released online learning hub, HPE Partner Ready Marketing Pro Academy, the vendor plans to introduce new education content to help with digital marketing. HPE also said it will expand its face-to-face digital marketing workshops, increasing availability in global metro areas.
Product integrations at DattoCon 2018
Cloud distributor Pax8 unveiled an integration with Autotask at DattoCon 2018. The linkup lets managed services providers (MSPs) import company data from Autotask and export products and services to Autotask professional services automation (PSA) software.
In addition, Pax8 said the integration simplifies transactions in the billing platform to "prevent unknown revenue loss," and it permits access to the OmniDash portal in the Pax8 Command Console to manage the Autotask integration points.
Passportal, meanwhile, took the wraps off what it termed an "enhanced PSA integration" with Autotask. The integration will sync configuration items into Passportal's Ocular + docs, which provides a way for MSPs to document, store and access standard operating procedures. Passportal added documentation management to its product line in 2017.
Other news
- Continuum is partnering with SentinelOne to bring that vendor's endpoint protection, detection and response platform to the MSP market. The move follows Continuum's acquisition of cybersecurity vendor Carvir.
- Ingram Micro expanded its Managed Print Services program to include more partner enablement resources, a range of printer options, and a "simple supplies and services model," according to the company. Differentiation has become a key consideration in the managed print services market.
- Unisys launched a managed services offering that aims to help federal agencies migrate data and applications to Amazon Web Services. The offering, Unisys CloudForte, is available immediately.
- Transparency Market Research (TMR) predicted the global market for AWS Managed Services will reach $1.8 billion by 2026. According to TMR, the AWS Managed Services market was valued at $559.4 million in 2017.
- ConnectWise PSA software now features enhanced integrations with Acronis Data Cloud. Enhancements include an extension of service provider offerings to Acronis Files Cloud and Acronis Disaster Recovery Cloud, Acronis said.
- Xerox signed up two multibrand dealers to its partner program: AIS, headquartered in Las Vegas, and Allied Business Solutions, based in Boise, Idaho.
Market Share is a news roundup published every Friday.
