Aruba’s managed services play: What it means for the Australian channel
Aruba has this week unveiled new Network as a Service, Managed Service, and Cloud-based Networking options, as well as a brand new channel partner program, as it looks to make the most of mobile and the Internet of Things.
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, says the rapid introduction of mobile technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT) have accelerated the requirements for IT network infrastructures, presenting Australian channel partners with opportunities.
"To remove unpredictability in IT operations and spending, Aruba is taking a software-based approach with its Mobile First Platform, enabling IT organisations to quickly respond to new requirements as they emerge, minimise capital expenditures, and maintain a competitive edge," the company explains.
"For some time our customers and channel partners in Australia and New Zealand have desired a different approach to procuring networking solutions," explains Steve Coad, managing director for Aruba in Australia and New Zealand.
"That is, being able to buy technology as a service on an as-needed basis and then charging this to OPEX rather than taking a big up front hit on their CAPEX expenditures," he says.
"Fuelling this demand is the constantly shifting cloud paradigm and an almost insatiable demand for mobility solutions which enterprises want to keep pace with as new technologies emerge.
Coad says Network-as-a-Service addresses this market shift with a fundamentally new and unique way to acquire and consume communications services.
"In Australia and New Zealand we are seeking to expand our existing channel alliances, our breadth of subscription offerings and then make these available to our increasingly broad base of customers," he says.
Aruba ANZ channel sales director David Elliott says the company wants to enable its channel partners with cloud-based managed services.
Wireless LAN, wired switching and WAN routing infrastructures can now be managed for customers by resellers and service providers using Aruba Central, Aruba's subscription-based network services solution.
Elliott says the solution enables Aruba resellers to take advantage of Central's support for multi-tenancy and its built-in managed services portal, and start offering managed services to their customer base.
"With a turnkey solution and no additional platform engineering cost or complexity, Aruba Central delivers a recurring revenue stream with higher margin opportunities for Aruba resellers," he explains.
"Aruba channel partners and Aruba customers with varying levels of IT infrastructure administration across many distributed sites can take advantage of the platform – with different IT groups having unique privileges or access to the platform, defined per location," Elliot explains.
"Aruba's Network-as-a-Service is market changing for our channel partners in the region and will deliver them a real competitive edge against some of the legacy networking vendors," he adds.
"Many of our partners are highly experienced in delivering the 'as-a-service' model for other technologies, and now with Aruba Network-as-a-Service managed through Aruba Central, they can keep their customers up-to-date on the latest innovations in both networking as well as the wider technology ecosystem, creating real value for them by enabling better utilization of technology and resources.
