While many firms in the technology space are cutting back on staff to prop up capex spending, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is reportedly opting for a different approach, doubling down on sales staff to fuel its market push.

CRN reported HPE’s North America Channel VP Jeremiah Jenson revealed the vendor has doubled the headcount of its networking sales team as well as its channel sales reps to “talk to more customers … and to go take share in the market.”

Jenson’s comments come as HPE looks to make tailwinds off the back of its $14 billion Juniper Networks acquisition. Some seven months in, the newly converged player has already showcased its ability to work as one, supporting the Winter Olympics – an effort Juniper CEO-turned-HPE exec Rami Rahim said was “seamless” proof of its combined networking division.

The Juniper-infused HPE is gearing up for a market dogfight with a resurgent Cisco that’s buoyed by all-time high stock prices and a hyper-focus shift from software and subscriptions selling to being a full-stack company.

But despite bullish competition, HPE looks to be just as confident, with Jenson telling CRN: “The decisions that we are making and the pace at which we are innovating would rival that of anybody in the market.”

Jenson spoke of lofty goals for the converged networking business – with the firm having already debuted retail-focused networking gear and liquid-cooled Ethernet switches. But in addition to those ambitions, he added that HPE was focused on working with partners to make things happen that little bit faster.

“That comes down to who are the partners with the capabilities, the partners with the certifications, and the partners that have invested in a networking go-to-market,” the executive added.

In addition to doubling its sales team size, a new leader was put at the helm, with Phil Mottram elevated to chief sales officer in a shakeup that saw veteran sales chief Heiko Meyer depart the business after almost four decades.

HPE doubling its sales team likely won’t faze Cisco, though, as CFO Mark Patterson brushed off the challenge during an investor conference last December.

“I think that as HPE and Juniper come together, they have a lot of overlap and probably their best performing space, which is wireless, so that's causing, I think, a lot of confusion with customers and what's going to happen there, and we've certainly been able to capitalize on that,” Patterson said at the time.