‘While bidding farewell is bittersweet, I am thrilled to announce my transition to Juniper Networks, where I am eager to embark on the next wave of innovation with AI at the forefront,’ says new Juniper Networks Area Vice President of Enterprise Sales Chad Romero.

Juniper Networks has hired away another Cisco sales veteran as it prepares to be acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and mount a battle for AI networking supremacy with the network market leader.

Chad Romero, a 15-year Cisco veteran who was most recently senior director of Americas strategic engagement, services and software sales, announced on LinkedIn Monday that he was leaving Cisco to take a job as area vice president of enterprise sales at Juniper.

Romero said on LinkedIn that he was the leader of the group helping drive Cisco’s software transition with the aim of capturing Cisco’s “most complexed (sic) and largest opportunities” selling across “managed services, XaaS, enterprise agreements, Service Provider Agreements and Whole Portfolio Agreements.”

In the LinkedIn post, Romero said his organization has been key in navigating the “transformative (Cisco) software transition from $650 million to over $5 billion in enterprise agreements annually.

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“While bidding farewell is bittersweet, I am thrilled to announce my transition to Juniper Networks, where I am eager to embark on the next wave of innovation with AI at the forefront,” said Romero. “I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and look forward to leveraging my experiences and skills to contribute to Juniper’s mission of driving technological advancement and empowering businesses worldwide.”

Romero’s post had 230 positive reactions on LinkedIn along with 89 comments, including some from channel executives wishing him well.

Cisco declined to comment on Romero’s departure.

CRN reached out to Juniper Networks to speak to Romero but had not heard back at press time.

Hope Galley, a 24-year Cisco veteran who in March joined Juniper as vice president of channel sales, Americas, said in a post on LinkedIn that she was thrilled to “teaming” again with Romero.

“We continue to grow with executives who believe in the power of the channel and partnering,” wrote Galley, the former global senior sales director, routes to market for Cisco Meraki. “Chad Romero is one of the best when it comes to partnering.”

Two other executives with Cisco experience that Juniper has hired in the last six months are: Hiroyuki Ishida, a 17-year Cisco veteran and former director at Cisco Japan Global Enterprise Sales (most recently senior sales director at Blue Yonder) who joined Juniper as an area vice president in Japan in March; and Aravind Srikumar, a four-year Cisco veteran, most recently Cisco head of product, hyperscalers, SONiC O, who joined Juniper as vice president of products last December.

HPE announced in January that it was acquiring Juniper in a $14 billion deal that is expected to close at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.

Juniper Networks and HPE Aruba took the top two spots earlier this year in the “Leaders” category for the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure from research firm Gartner.

Juniper Networks came in at No. 1 and HPE-Aruba was No. 2 in the 2024 ranking. The other vendors in the “Leaders” quadrant are Huawei, Extreme Networks, Cisco and Fortinet.

C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company and a top HPE and Aruba partner, said he sees Juniper’s hiring of Romero as another sign that HPE and Juniper are going all in with the channel to team with the channel on AI networking opportunities versus Cisco.

“It’s clear HPE – Juniper are making the investment for the long game for a total solution for customers looking at the network,” he said. “You can see they are building a team and bringing in the right people that have relationships with the channel and ultimately the customers.”

Howdyshell said customers are “open” to the Juniper Networks HPE AI networking story. “This is an opportunity to help customers find the right solutions for their business challenges,” he said.

Advizex’s technology team, led by CTO Chris Miller, are “very bullish” on the benefits that Juniper’s Mist AI networking product brings to customers to complement Advizex’s AI strategy, said Howdyshell.

Advizex, in fact, is already driving dramatic sales growth with AI, leveraging the investment of its parent Fulcrum, which acquired AI pioneer Razor in January as part of an all-out sales offensive to drive “actionable” AI in industry verticals.

Advizex has $70 million in its AI sales pipeline with $40 million in AI sales already closed, said Howdyshell. “We think we have a first mover advantage with strong investment in Razor from Fulcrum and also a long-term advantage because of our technical talent,” he said. “Our AI solutions are being favorably received by customers.”

Patrick Shelley, CTO at PKA Technologies, Montvale, N.J., No. 441 on the 2023 CRN Solution Provider 500, said PKA just got certified this week on Juniper Networks and its Mist AI technology in anticipation of the AI opportunities that will come from an HPE Juniper combination.

“We want to be prepared to have these AI solutions conversations with customers even before the deal is finalized,” he said. “We are looking forward to bringing some of our customers to HPE Discover in June to talk about the strategic implications of HPE and Juniper bringing a full AI networking solution to customers.”

Shelley said he is excited to see Juniper bringing on board Cisco talent to draw a detailed picture of what the AI differences are between HPE Juniper and Cisco.

“Customers want to have the conversations now about what HPE Juniper can provide for AI networking solutions versus Cisco,” he said. “Everyone is excited about the possibilities and the innovation that will come from this union.”

PKA is building out an industry vertical specific sales strategy around AI solutions focused on lines of business, said Shelley. “We are doing extensive consulting with our customers around AI line of business solutions,” he said. “We are working with customers to figure out how they can use AI to improve the business. That is where we come in with our consulting expertise, looking at specific vertical market solutions. We are showing customers the lines of business benefits for AI.”

Shelley said there are distinct differences between the way Cisco is approaching AI with the Splunk SIEM strategy versus the cloud native AI networking approach with HPE Juniper.

“I see Juniper with Mist AI working with HPE to build an AI networking product from the ground up as opposed to Cisco which I see as more of a bolt-on approach,” he said. “HPE Juniper really has a new way of thinking in terms of the innovation they are bringing to market with AI. It is really exciting to see what is going to happen with HPE Juniper!”