More distributed enterprises has meant that businesses’ user experiences and internet of things (IoT) use cases are increasingly spanning campus, branch, wide area network (WAN), cloud and security environments, and to address these demands, HPE is bringing together its premier secure access service edge (SASE), wired access, and wireless local area network (LAN) offerings together under a unified agentic framework.
This will see HPE integrate its Networking EdgeConnect platform with its Mist and HPE Aruba Central systems. This is said to extend HPE’s self-driving networking strategy by delivering enhanced visibility and simplified agentic NetOps and SecOps capabilities from the edge to the cloud.
HPE said that even though enterprises were dealing with more distributed ways of working, it was not uncommon for network and security teams to be lacking a unified view across these domains, making it harder to troubleshoot issues, maintain security and deliver consistent digital experiences.
By bringing Networking EdgeConnect into Mist and Aruba Central, HPE believes users of SASE technology can benefit from the Marvis AI engine and assistant used across a whole self-driving network.
This includes self-driving actions via an agentic mesh that replaces manual effort with trusted automation, user experience twinning that finds and fixes problems without users being present, and a large experience model that predicts and prevents issues with key applications like Zoom and Teams.
Existing Mist and Aruba Central customers will also be able to gain integrated access to unified SASE capabilities, including application-aware routing, WAN optimisation, integrated security and seamless security service edge integration.
Users of the full stack of wired, wireless and SASE offerings will have end-to-end visibility and control to optimise user experiences from edge to cloud, with full deployment flexibility across on-premise, cloud and virtual private cloud.
Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research, noted that the convergence of SASE, wired, and wireless LAN under a unified agentic model, is a logical and necessary evolution for enterprise networking. “HPE’s move to bring EdgeConnect into Mist and Aruba Central isn’t just about consolidation – it’s about giving enterprises the proactive, self-driving capabilities needed to protect performance and user experience across edge-to-cloud environments,” he said.
Bob Laliberte, principal analyst and founder at Liberte Research Group, added: “HPE Networking is becoming an increasingly important driver of HPE’s growth strategy and a connective layer for the AI-ready enterprise. HPE Marvis is expanding as a common intelligence layer, while HPE works to bring together the strengths of HPE Mist, HPE Aruba Central and the broader Juniper portfolio without forcing customers into disruptive migrations.”
Ultimately, HPE believes that together, Networking EdgeConnect, Mist and Aruba Central create a unified AI-native foundation for networking and security, enabling organisations to deliver better user experiences, reduce operational complexity and accelerate their journey to self-driving operations.
“We’re combining our best AI, wired, wireless and SASE innovations into a single operational experience that gives customers greater visibility, automated protection, faster issue resolution and a clear path to self-driving operations,” said David Hughes, senior vice-president and general manager of SASE and security for networking.
