With Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)'s pending $14B acquisition of Juniper Networks, one of the biggest questions surrounds product overlap.

During both investor as well as press and analyst calls when the acquisition was announced, HPE and Juniper executive leadership downplayed the issue of overlap. The reality, though, is that with decades of product and services development from both HPE and Juniper across the networking and security landscape, there are bound to be areas where both companies have offerings.

In this article SDxCentral is taking a deep dive look at what's actually in the two portfolios of the two companies as they race toward an acquisition that won't close until late 2024.

HPE and Juniper Networks wired networking overlap

HPE and Juniper Networks offer a range of wired networking solutions. Both companies have been active in the wired networking market for decades and have portfolios that span core, campus and branch switching and routing assets.

HPE wired networking solutions. HPE's networking switch portfolio has undergone multiple transitions over the last two decades. The portfolio was once known as HP Procurve and it benefitted from multiple acquisitions over the years.

The current HPE switch portfolio, which is branded as HPE Aruba Networking, spans data center core, Campus/Branch local area network (LAN) and small business network switches. There are at least 17 different switch families in the current HPE Aruba Networking portfolio (detailed in the chart below) with throughput ranging from 104 Gbps up 25.6Tbps. The various switches address specific needs including layer 2 and layer 3 networks, stackable chassis, top-of-rack (TOR)  and modular port configurations on some models.

Below is a table with more detail on the use case for each HPE Aruba Networking series switch: Access switches for enterprise Use case Switching capacity CX 10000 Series Campus core/data center switch. The CX 10000 provides distributed advanced services to the data center edge, with unified network and security automation and policy. Up to 3.6 Tbps of switching capacity CX 9300 32 port 100/400 GbE switch Up to 25.6 Tbps CX 8400 Modular campus core and data center switch Up to 19.2 Tbps CX 8360 Top of rack for enterprise campus core and data center. Up to 2.4 Tbps CX 8325 Aggregation and data center leaf-spine Up to 6.4 Tbps CX 8320 High-density 1/10/40 GbE Up to 2.5 Tbps CX 8100 Enterprise campus aggregation and data center top-of-rack server connectivity Up to 1.76 Tbps CX 6400 Series Ideal for use from edge access to core and into the data center high-performance switching up to 28Tbps Up to 28 Tbps CX 6300 Series Network access, aggregation, core and data center TOR Up to 1760 Gbps CX 6200 Series Stackable access switch series for enterprise branch offices and campus networks, System Switching Capacity: 272 Gbps CX 6100 Series Entry-level access switches ideal for branch offices, mid-market enterprises Up to 176 Gbps CX 6000 Series Layer 2 Ethernet access switch for edge of network Up to 104 Gbps 5400R Series Layer 3 modular switch series Up to 1920 Gbps 3810 Series Advanced Layer 3 Switch series for enterprises, SMBs and branch office networks Up to 480 Gbps 2930M Series Stackable Layer 3 switch Up to 420 Gbps 2540 Series Layer 2 switch series for enterprises, branch office and SMBs Up to 176 Gbps 2530 Series Layer 2 switch series for enterprises, branch office and  SMBs Up to 104 Gbps

 

Juniper Networks wired networking solutions

Juniper Networks similarly has a vast wired networking switch and router portfolio. Juniper actually entered the switch market later than HPE, with the first Juniper EX switches appearing in 2008.

In 2024, Juniper has two primary wired-switching platforms, EX Series and the QFX Series. The EX Series switches are cloud-ready, high-performance access and aggregation/core layer switches designed for enterprise branch, campus and data center networks, while the QFX Series are all about throughput and scalability alongside the integration of EVPN-VXLAN and IP fabric capabilities

The current Juniper Networks switching portfolio includes LAN and small business network switches. There are at least 27 different switch platforms in the Juniper portfolio including at least 16 in the EX enterprise series and 11 in the QFX family of switches (all listed in the chart below). The performance range in the vast Juniper lineup goes up to a staggering 102.4 Tbps.

Below is a table with more detail on the use case for each EX series switch: Product name Use case Switching capacity EX4400-24X High-density 10GbE switch for enterprise campus core/aggregation layer 1080 Gbps EX4100 Multigigabit Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven multigigabit access switch for high-performance campus access layer 472 Gbps EX4100 AI-driven 1GbE access switch for high-performance campus access layer 376 Gbps EX4100-F AI-driven 1GbE access switch for high-performance campus access layer with fiber uplinks 256 Gbps EX4400 Multigigabit AI-powered multigigabit access switch for high-performance campus access layer 1080 Gbps EX4400 AI-powered 1GbE access switch for high-performance campus access layer 912 Gbps EX4300 Multigigabit High-density multigigabit access switch for advanced campus/branch access layer 960 Gbps EX4300 High-density 1GbE access switch for advanced campus/branch access layer 496 Gbps EX3400 Cost-effective 1GbE access switch for converged enterprise access layer 336 Gbps EX2300 Compact, high-density 1GbE access switch for small environments 176 Gbps EX2300 Multigigabit Compact, high-density multigigabit access switch for small environments 264 Gbps EX2300-C Compact, fanless 1GbE access switch for low-density branch offices 64 Gbps EX9250 Programmable and scalable core/aggregation switch for enterprise environments 2 Tbps EX9200 Highly scalable and programmable core/aggregation switch for mission-critical applications 13.2 Tbps EX4650 Compact, scalable 10/25/100GbE distribution switch for enterprise campus 2 Tbps EX4600 Compact, scalable 10GbE distribution switch for enterprise campus and data center top-of-rack 720 Gbps

 

Here is a table with more detail on the use case for each QFX series switch: Product name Use case Switching capacity QFX5240 AI data center leaf for high-speed, low-latency AI/ML workloads; Data center spine for large scale AI data center fabrics 102.4 Tbps QFX5700 Data center fabric spine for large scale EVPN-VXLAN fabrics; campus distribution/core; secure data center interconnect 25.6 Tbps QFX5230 Data center fabric spine and super spine for high-speed, low latency networks; edge router for data center interconnect 25.6 Tbps QFX5130 Data center fabric spine for cloud services environments; campus distribution/core 25.6 Tbps QFX5120 Data center leaf/spine; campus distribution/core; metro core 2.16/4/6.4 Tbps QFX5110 Data center fabric leaf; low-latency L2/L3 environments 1.76/2.56 Tbps QFX5220 Data center fabric spine; metro core 25.6 Tbps QFX5210 Data center fabric leaf/spine; metro core 12.8 Tbps QFX5200 Data center fabric leaf/spine; metro core 3.6/6.4 Tbps QFX10008/QFX10016 Data center fabric spine; campus core; service provider core 96 Tbps QFX10002 Data center fabric leaf/spine; low-latency environments 2.88/5.76/12 Tbps

 

HPE vs Juniper switching – there is overlap, but ...

So is there overlap in the switching portfolio? Absolutely, but it's not dramatic.

Looking across at least 44 different switch product families from both HPE and Juniper Networks, the mid-tier level of HPE Aruba Networking and Juniper EX switches do appear to have similar use cases and target deployments. Certainly the management tier for each is different, the network firmware and service level agreements have varying degrees of differences, even when the basic networking specifications appear similar.

Now looking at the QFX switch lineup and that's a range that HPE barely touches today, if at all. It will bring an almost entirely new set of core and data center capabilities and scale that HPE's current portfolio doesn’t fully address.

Looking beyond scale, Juniper's lineup of Mist cloud management and AI networking capabilities that can be used alongside QFX (and to a lesser extent EX switching) is another area that HPE Aruba Networking doesn't address at the same level. HPE Aruba Central does have cloud management capabilities for network switching, but doesn't currently provide the same depth of AI capabilities for optimization and management (which Juniper just expanded as well).

No doubt, HPE will continue to support HPE Aruba networking gear for years to come post-acquisition as service level agreements and enterprise demand dictates. HPE has experience integrating in overlapping switch capabilities, but given the fact that the new HPE Networking business unit will be run by current Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, you can expect that for the most part the Juniper EX and QFX switches will be the path forward with some consolidation of the odd HPE Aruba CX continuing with perhaps some new management tier and possibly even JUNOS (Juniper's network operating system (OS)) integration.