HPE Acquires SD-WAN Provider Silver Peak for $925 Million in Cash

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) has acquired SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) provider, Silver Peak, in a transaction valued at $925 million. Silver Peak will be combined with HPE’s Aruba business unit and is meant to extend Aruba’s technology leadership in the large and fast-growing SD-WAN space.

Silver Peak’s advanced SD-WAN offerings are highly complementary and strengthen Aruba’s Edge Service Platform (ESP), says HPE. By combining Silver Peak’s SD-WAN with Aruba’s SD-Branch solutions, customers can simplify branch office and WAN deployments to empower remote workforces, enable cloud-connected distributed enterprises, and transform business operations “without compromising quality or reliability.”

“The need for edge-to-cloud architectures has never been more relevant as enterprises look to extend connectivity to branch locations and enable secure work-from-home experiences,” said Keerti Melkote, president of Intelligent Edge for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and founder of Aruba Networks.

“HPE was an early mover in identifying the opportunity at the edge and that trend is accelerating in a post-COVID world,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE. “With this acquisition we are accelerating our edge-to-cloud strategy to provide a true distributed cloud model and cloud experience for all apps and data wherever they live. Silver Peak’s innovative team and technology bring critical capabilities that will help our customers modernize and transform their networks to securely connect any edge to any cloud.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of HPE’s fiscal year 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

SD-WAN Edge Platform

Powered by Silver Peak’s SD-WAN edge platform, the company’s customers can achieve dedicated WAN-like performance while running all cloud applications and services via broadband access. Silver Peak would also enable freedom of choice to leverage best-in-class technologies from a broad range of ecosystem partners, particularly those focused on security.

“Today’s announcement comes at a unique moment for our customers, who are grappling with business recovery in the wake of the pandemic,” said Keerti Melkote, president of Intelligent Edge for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and founder of Aruba Networks. “The need for edge-to-cloud architectures has never been more relevant as enterprises look to extend connectivity to branch locations and enable secure work-from-home experiences. Silver Peak’s technology transforms legacy WAN architectures to self-driving WANs, which is a perfect fit with Aruba’s cloud-native, AI-driven Edge Services Platform. Together, we will be able to meet these needs with critical connectivity, security, and AI capabilities to drive the next generation of Edge-to-Cloud transformation.”