Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) network chief Rami Rahim sees a big opportunity for the vendor’s ongoing channel partner overhaul to drive critical revenues from its legacy Juniper Networks operations.

Rahim, who was Juniper CEO and is now president and GM of HPE’s Juniper-infused networking business, told analysts at HPE’s recent Securities Analyst Meeting that “about 90% of our sales” come through those channel partners.

“When we closed this deal, there was only around a 10% overlap in partners between HPE Aruba Networking and Juniper Networks,” Rahim said of HPE’s $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks that closed mid-year. “We now have more than 47,000 partners around the world selling our HPE networking portfolio. So harmonizing partner programs and driving our combined product portfolio through a broader partner community represents a compelling source of revenue synergies for us.”

HPE unveiled the updated partner program at its Discover event in June. It’s designed to bring together previously disparate channels such as HPE Partner Ready and HPE Partner Ready for Networking under a single umbrella.

Simon Ewington, SVP of worldwide channel and partner ecosystem at HPE, in a blog post last month claimed the vendor counted “more than 1,700 partners with one or more HPE Partner Ready Vantage membership,” at the close of its recently completed third fiscal quarter.

“Designed with partner input and built on best practices from HPE’s award-winning programs, it simplifies enrolment, offers flexible participation, and provides tailored support,” Ewington said of the program. “With a unified compensation model and the ability to choose competencies aligned with their business goals, partners can easily differentiate, drive growth, and deliver innovative solutions in a competitive market.”

Ewington added that number will surge as HPE integrates legacy Juniper Networks partners.

“Partner feedback on the Juniper Networks acquisition has been overwhelmingly positive, with great interest in HPE’s go-forward plans and enthusiastic engagement around the opportunities it creates within the partner ecosystem,” Ewington touted. “The focus now shifts to seamlessly onboarding partners into each other’s programs, fostering collaboration, and unlocking new growth opportunities.”

Those growth opportunities are going to be important for HPE as it looks to layer in Juniper’s assets.

HPE recently appointed Juniper’s sales leader Gordon Mackintosh as SVP of sales to lead its channel and partner networking sales. Mackintosh had spent five years at Juniper and was previously VP for partner-led sales at Extreme Networks and spent almost two decades at Cisco.

HPE’s dual networking platform strategy

HPE plans to continue supporting separate Aruba and Juniper’s Mist networking platforms in the market. Rahim told analysts at the recent meeting that now that he has had a chance to look “under the covers” of HPE’s Aruba networking platform and his obvious extensive history with Juniper’s Mist offerings, “I’m, like, really impressed.”

“It’s a bit of an embarrassment of riches right now in terms of what we have under our portfolio,” Rahim added, before explaining how he sees the two seemingly similar platforms coexisting in the market.

“They both are AIOps platforms, but they both have unique strengths and capabilities,” Rahim said. “Mist is a public cloud-only AIOps platform, so as great as Mist was in AIOps capabilities, we were shut out of any opportunities that require different deployment models, like private cloud or virtual private cloud networking, or even [on-premises].”

In contrast, “when I looked at Aruba, they've actually made more progress in areas like security integration, agentic AI capabilities,” Rahim said, adding, “so they really have unique strengths.”

Broad channel partner shift

HPE’s partner program overhaul follows similar moves by rival Broadcom for its VMware subsidiary, and Cisco.

Broadcom initiated its VMware partner program changes shortly after it closed on the VMware acquisition. That change aligned legacy partner activities more with Broadcom’s own programs.

Kris Prasad, SVP and GM for Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) division, captured the essence of those changes in a blog post earlier this year in stating that the vendor expects “that our partners will go all-in with us on helping customers unlock the full value of VCF.”

“Partners that are not committed to investing in and evolving their businesses to help customers adopt and succeed with VCF will struggle to find a place in the Broadcom partner ecosystem,” Prasad wrote. “As we head into the second half of 2025, we intend to put greater emphasis and focus on these value-based solution providers. We believe this is the right path forward, not just for Broadcom, but for every customer who relies on VCF to run their digital infrastructure with speed, agility, and security.”

Broadcom during the recent VMware Explore event trotted out a handful of those “all-in” partners, which noted the new focus makes it easier for them to take VMware products to market.

“What I love about it is the focus, one platform, one solution,” Stephen Moss, SVP of managed services at Insight, said of the new VMware platform structure, later noting that it was superior “versus the kluge, Band-Aid together 20 different products that were not built to work together.”

“And if you look at the partner program, the way it's structured, how you have a very clear goal-based system for certifications, if you're looking to build and become a VMware partner,” Moss added. “If you're not, it's a great opportunity because it's very well structured. There's great options for getting your team skilled up. If you're not, there's all this training available.”

Brian Moats, SVP of global commercial sales and partners at Broadcom, this week further reinforced those benefits in a blog post, noting the importance of these channels in supporting market opportunities.

“Broadcom and its customers cannot meet this demand alone,” Moats wrote. “Our partners are essential to helping customers modernize their infrastructure, operations, and security to deliver the outcomes that matter most. That’s why it’s our mission to keep investing in our partners, via the programs, enablement, and resources that help them deliver innovation and measurable value to our joint customers.”

Cisco is in the process of rolling out its 360 Partner Program that was initially unveiled last year and is also targeted at consolidating the vendor’s various partner programs. It will see the vendor streamline its partner evaluation from 22 specializations across 15 business units down to six focused portfolios: networking, security, cloud and AI infrastructure, Splunk, collaboration, and services.

The new program consolidates multiple existing incentive programs – including VIP, Perform Plus, Lifecycle Incentive, and the Cisco Services Partner Program (CSPP) – into a single Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI) structure.

Rodney Clark, senior VP for partnerships at Cisco, noted in a blog post earlier this year tied the move to evolving market demands, pointing to subscription services accounting for 56% of Cisco’s total revenues during its most recent fiscal quarter, with software revenue growing 33% and software subscription revenues surging 39%.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer, SVP for Cisco’s Partner Program, in a more recent blog post furthered that financial posture. De Dobbeleer explained that with Cisco’s current “VIP 46” program “we’re in the richest rebate period ever, rewarding partners for their investment in customer needs to build AI-ready data centers, a future proof workplace, and digital resilience.”

The VIP 46 cycle began in late July, kicking off the last of Cisco’s legacy incentive program cycles. It’s set to run through the end of January, when it will then give way to Cisco’s 360 Partner Program.

Central to the new-look Cisco 360 is the introduction of a Value Index that measures partners across four pillars: foundational, capabilities, performance, and engagement. De Dobbeleer explained that this new framework moves away from traditional transaction-based metrics toward a more holistic evaluation of partner value delivery.

“The Cisco Partner Incentive simplifies incentives into one framework that rewards partners across land, adopt, expand, and renew,” De Dobbeleer wrote. “We’re increasing transparency, predictability, and speed – delivering rebates earlier than ever.”

Partners will be designated as either "Cisco Partner" or "Cisco Preferred Partner" within specific portfolios, replacing the current tiered system that includes the “Gold” designation many partners have worked years to achieve – and are upset about losing.

De Dobbeleer attempted to soothe that pain, explaining that the new designation “can now reflect your true strength – your power, capabilities, and expertise – in a way customers can clearly understand and trust.”