Aruba targets MSPs with dedicated team
VP says increasing client demand for hybrid infrastructures throws up new challenges for partners
HPE Aruba has set up a team specifically to help managed service providers (MSP) in an effort to expand its presence in the mid-market, according to EMEA VP Morten Illum.
Illum (pictured above) stated that his focus this year is capturing more of the mid-market in EMEA, as well as helping partners to bolster their managed service capabilities.
"We need more focus on that area, so I've created a dedicated managed services team to work with not only our bigger partners, but also the smaller partners," he explained.
"The team will assist those smaller partners with onboarding and help them go into a more standardised programme, enabling them to deliver more of these value-added services to the market than we could provide in the past."
Illum explained that mid-sized organisations often don't have the IT resources to handle an increasingly complex hybrid infrastructure, and so need partners to be able to cater to all elements of their needs.
"They have the same regulatory demands as bigger companies have," he said.
"They have the same need for their email services to be up and running, the same need for access to cloud and being able to do all that in a secure environment.
"Now they have to consider what they do with their security and how to manage their network while ensuring an efficient infrastructure.
"There is a big opportunity for us and our partners to go and help that transformation with the customers."
Aruba Networks was founded in 2002, as a WiFi company, and was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2015, before that organisation split into HP and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE). It now operates in the "classical" network market.
The EMEA boss described the mid-market as a "sweetspot" for Aruba and its partners, but said the demand for a hybrid environment from clients is proving a challenge for the vendor and its resellers.
"Customers are coming to us with a business challenge rather than an IT challenge," he said.
"Together with our partners, we need to understand what that means and translate it back to an IT solution and then figure out how we can better shape that delivery of the solution, for example as-a-service offering, a cloud version or on-premise-as-a-service.
"The real challenge for us and our partners is that we need to be focused on how to become sharper on what these challenges are, as well as understanding what verticals these customers are - because a mid-market healthcare customer has very different needs to a mid-market financial customer."
HPE Aruba has published research on how medium-sized businesses worldwide are adopting workplace technology, surveying 2,700 employees in managerial and non-managerial roles.
Illum noted that one of the trends that came out of the survey was that mid-market organisations are faster to adopt technology, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, than their corporate counterparts.
He added that this can bring its own troubles as unsecured devices can increase security risks to the company, as employees can connect their own devices to the workplace environment.
"According to our research, IoT adoption and employees' expectations to be in an agile office are higher in the mid-market," said Illum.
"Companies are accepting that and are looking for partners and vendors who can help them secure those devices."