[HN Gopher] US Justice Department settles antitrust case for HPE...
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       US Justice Department settles antitrust case for HPE's $14B
       takeover of Juniper
        
       Author : awat
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2025-06-28 17:59 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | bc569a80a344f9c wrote:
       | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250628599766/en/HPE...
       | 
       | Press release.
       | 
       | It's interesting that this requires HPE to divest from Instant
       | On, which is their SMB brand. It's unclear how that alone
       | maintains a competitive landscape for enterprise customers that
       | largely would have chosen Aruba's more traditional offering.
       | 
       | That said, it'll be interesting to see what use cases for data
       | centers they come up with. Mist is one of very few infrastructure
       | providers I've seen where AI/ML features actually improve
       | operations. Surprisingly often in ways that I'm puzzled
       | competitors have not been able to duplicate: something as simple
       | as sending all access point logs through outlier detection and
       | automated triage to proactively send RMAs for broken hardware
       | before the customer even complains.
        
       | estebarb wrote:
       | I don't understand HPE: they bought Aruba, already had a strong
       | wired switches division. They also bought Cray, which obviously
       | has their own advanced networking expertise. And now Juniper?
       | 
       | It is not like they lack in-house talent, they have it!
        
         | wmf wrote:
         | Aruba probably declined after HPE bought it (just like every
         | acquisition) so now they need another one to juice revenue.
         | 
         | Cray networking is HPC specific and isn't used in the campus or
         | general data center markets.
        
         | bc569a80a344f9c wrote:
         | They've been trying to compete in the controller-less WiFi
         | market for a while and it's not going well. Tons of larger
         | (higher ed, which have complex environments with very many end
         | points) campuses have tried to move to Aruba Central, and
         | subsequently moved back because it isn't working well.
         | 
         | And there's huge operational benefits to Mist's architecture
         | even if you leave out the AI part. My best guess for why Aruba
         | hasn't been able to replicate at least the architecture is that
         | they're carrying around too much legacy they can't break with
         | to make this feasible.
         | 
         | Since they're nearly explicitly saying "we are buying Juniper
         | for Mist", and at least in my opinion aren't doing that only
         | for further developing that portfolio towards the data center,
         | I guess they've just decided to buy someone who was able to
         | execute on that architecture shift.
        
         | tw04 wrote:
         | > already had a strong wired switches division
         | 
         | Huh? They had basically 0 market share outside of SMB in the
         | switching space.
         | 
         | Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Force10 (Dell).
         | 
         | Foundry was the bottom dollar alternative before being acquired
         | by brocade, which Broadcom eventually ruined. And mellanox in
         | the HPC space.
         | 
         | I've literally never run across HP switches in any enterprise
         | datacenter, including shops that were "all in" with HP.
        
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       (page generated 2025-06-28 23:01 UTC)