Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Networking remains committed to running both of its enterprise-focused networking brands – Aruba and Mist – based on what company executives said is their distinct financial and market positions, though a “rebranding” could come down the road.

HPE gained Mist as part of its $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, a rival that prior to the deal was a fierce competitor to HPE’s own Aruba Central enterprise network offering. HPE during the acquisition process remained adamant that despite outside concerns it would maintain both brands if the deal closed.

Sujai Hajela, EVP and GM for HPE Networking’s Campus and Branch division that includes both Aruba and Mist, explained to SDxCentral during an interview at the vendor’s recent investor day the “reason we agreed that both these platforms will stay is both of them had multibillion-dollar customer franchises behind them.”

That financial angle is crucial to support HPE Networking’s recently laid out monetary ambitions. This includes increased cost synergy run rate expectations of at least $800 million by the end of its fiscal 2028.

Hajela did add that a key for this ongoing support in light of those financial projections is the ability to drive efficiencies from both brands.

“That is where we said, 'OK, any new hardware which will be built should be able to connect to both,'” Hajela said, pointing to a recently released Wi-Fi 7 access point that can connect to both Mist and Aruba.

Hajela also noted that back-end systems must be able to support both platforms.

“Existing platforms such as the CX switching platform from Aruba should be able to operate under a Mist environment. That was done. Now we are doing the same thing with Edge Connect from the Silver Peak acquisition,” Hajela said. “What we are saying is, when the customer deploys our things, they don't have to say this is Aruba hardware or Mist hardware. It's one hardware.”

Mist and Aruba, despite their observed similarities, will also continue to be marketed to different environments. Mist is a cloud-based model while Aruba is deployed on-premises or through a virtual private cloud (VPC) model.

HPE Networking head Rami Rahim during the event explained that the vendor expects to drive further market efficiencies through an upcoming sales channel integration.

“Partners drive most of our networking business, and this milestone will enable all 60,000 HPE partners to sell the full networking portfolio through one unified partner program,” Rahim said, adding that prior to the acquisition, “only around 10% of HPE Aruba Networking and Juniper partners overlapped, and so this creates a significant cross-selling opportunity as we bring the combined HPE Networking portfolio to a much broader set of sellers and customers.”

Rahim added that this “starts with campus and branch because much of the Aruba business, which went through the channel, was a campus and branch business and so the opportunity to unlock new partners to sell our campus and branch portfolio across Aruba and Mist is absolutely there, and that's work that's well underway. We want to make it absolutely frictionless for all 60,000 partners to sell that broader portfolio.”

Rahim noted that this combined effort will help drive high single-digit revenue growth for the vendor through its fiscal 2029.

Is a rebrand possible?

Analysts seemed to come out of the investor event with greater understanding of the dual-pronged approach, though questions remained over how customers are comprehending HPE Networking’s plans.

“The remaining challenge will be making this approach easy to understand,” Bob Laliberte, founder and principal analyst at Liberte Research Group, wrote in a report tied to the event. “Two platforms can preserve customer choice, but they can also create uncertainty unless HPE clearly defines the use cases, investment roadmap, and long-term experience associated with each.”

Rahim in a separate interview with SDxCentral at the investor day event dismissed talk of market confusion.

“I'm happy to report that I do not believe there's confusion,” Rahim said. “I've talked to endless customers right now and I think we came out early with a very clear and compelling strategy for how the platforms are going to be sort of built out going forward. We were clear that we're not going to rip the rug out from any of our customers by removing a platform that they were already investing in.”

Rahim added that this clarity has been backed by the vendor’s recent push to drive its “self-driving network” updates into both platforms, but the executive did note that change could come down the road.

“At some point, the user experience becomes so similar that maybe you start to think about rebranding,” Rahim said.