‘Public enemy number one and where [HPE] is trying to take over business is from Cisco. Even still, they have a long way to go and they are a ways behind Cisco,’ one partner tells CRN after the two CEOs took jabs at each other’s networking strategies this week at CRN parent The Channel Company’s 2024 XChange Best of Breed Conference.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri took aim at Cisco Systems this week, saying the fellow tech titan is deprioritizing networking at a time when HPE, with its soon-to-close $14 billion Juniper Networks acquisition, is moving full-speed ahead in becoming a networking industry giant. But solution providers don’t necessarily agree.

“We are becoming a networking company at the core. Something that probably Cisco has forgotten now for a little bit, and I think that’s the big opportunity, which ultimately is to give customers a more modern, AI-driven experience at the networking level,” Neri (pictured above right) said this week onstage at CRN parent The Channel Company’s 2024 XChange Best of Breed Conference.

Networking, Neri stressed, is the core foundation “before you even think about cloud or AI.”

HPE revealing its plan to acquire Juniper was a shot across Cisco’s bow, and the CEO’s comments further reiterate the company’s plans to steal networking business away from Cisco, said Lane Irvine, network business solutions director for Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based MSP that partners with both Cisco and HPE.

“Public enemy number one and where [HPE] is trying to take over business is from Cisco,” Irvine said. “Even still, they have a long way to go, and they are a ways behind Cisco.”

[Related: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Moving Fast To Win The AI Battle]

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, for his part, isn’t concerned about a combined HPE-Juniper Networks rivaling his company’s historic networking leadership.

“You look at the combination of networking and security and the importance of those two coming together-which they (HPE) do not have-and you look at data center infrastructure, you look at campus networking with wireless, with all of the observability, the security and everything that we have. I mean, we have more technology that brings more value to our customers in the infrastructure layer than anybody else,” said Cisco’s Robbins (pictured above left) in a rebuttal on stage at the Best of Breed Conference.

While HPE is “taking the right steps” in terms of its AI and network automation focus, Cisco is still the dominant player in the networking space, Long View Systems’ Irvine said. Security, he added, is one of HPE’s biggest gaps.

“Cisco has been the networking company for so long and they’re such a big piece of networking [industry],” he said. “Cisco’s very much leaning into security and without integrated security, the network is going to be a waste.”

Robbins told CRN in an exclusive interview earlier this year that missing from the HPE-Juniper Networks tie-up was security, a critical piece to the networking puzzle.

“With the Splunk acquisition, we just improved our position in the security world, so for customers who want to run platform-based secure networking infrastructure, we’re going to have the right answer. I bet if you ask the customer: ‘If you had to prioritize security, or some AI-driven dashboard’ they’re going to choose security all day long. And I think that’s the differentiation that we have,” Robbins said in the March interview.

HPE’s Juniper transaction is slated to close in the coming weeks, boosting the company to $11 billion in revenue. The Juniper networking business, according to Neri, will represent more than one-third of the company’s revenue and about 50 percent of the company’s profits.

From a revenue perspective, HPE Aruba pullsin smaller figures compared to Cisco’s networking business. HPE Aruba — a very high growth segment for HPE — together with Juniper, however, could get closer to Cisco’s networking business.

During Cisco’s most recent fiscal quarter and 2024 year-end, the tech giant’s networking segment, which includes its core switching and routing businesses, posted revenues of $6.80 billion during Q4 2024, a 28 percent decline year over year. Comparatively, HPE’s Intelligent Edge revenue, which includes its Aruba Networking business, was $1.1 billion during the company’s most recent fiscal quarter, down 23 percent from the previous year period.

AI At The Forefront

Like Cisco, HPE Aruba has been investing heavily in AI. Once the megadeal closes, Juniper’s market-leading Mist AI platform will be part of HPE, which competes directly against Cisco Meraki.

Similar to many enterprise security strategies which often rely on multiple vendors, such as Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, for example, businesses will be using a mixture of vendors for AI networking, like Cisco and HPE Aruba, said Duane White, senior vice president, enterprise solutions and managed services for MSP Calian IT and Cyber Solutions who was in attendance at the XChange Best of Breed Conference.

“[HPE] Aruba is now leading the AI conversation but the difference between what [HPE] and Cisco is doing is that HPE Aruba is working the front line of AI networking while if you listen to what [Robbins] said, Cisco is actively integrating AI into the core of the networking system so it isn’t an enablement, but more of a part of operations,” he said an email to CRN.

HPE’s AI focus and its pending Juniper acquisition is undoubtedly a compelling move for the networking industry. It’s also strategic as the company focuses on its core networking chops. But at the same time, Cisco’s focus on networking isn’t slipping, said Steve Wylie, senior vice president and general manager, East, for Trace3, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider giant that partners with both Cisco and HPE.

“I think HPE and Cisco, like pretty much every other manufacturer, are placing bets on how they think the AI market will evolve, but it’s too early to say that one or the other is definitively in the lead,” Wylie said.

HPE’s Neri said that partners on the path to making AI modernization a priority must be very proficient up front: “On day zero in my mind—because many enterprise customers want help.”

Wylie said that some partners are more ready than others.

“Organizations like Trace3 began investing in AI education more than a year ago and, at least for us, all of our employees are AI-certified from our AI Legends programs so our employees are more prepared than most,” he said.

Cisco’s Robbins onstage during the event wryly responded to Neri’s comments about Cisco’s “forgotten” networking business: “Well, we forgot more about networking than they’ll probably know about networking.”