The news broke on 30 June 2025 that the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) announced that it has come to a deal with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) to complete HPE’s purchase of networking rival Juniper Networks for $14bn.
HPE made some concessions, such as selling its HPE Aruba Instant On networking business in the next 180 days, as well as to hold an auction for a source code license to Juniper’s AI Ops for Mist. Of course, all of this is still subject to judicial review and approval by the judge handling the case.
Opportunities as well as risks
For enterprise buyers, this will represent a few opportunities as well as a few risks. For customers who are using the HPE Aruba Instant On solution, the anxiety will be palpable. Where that business ends up will make a huge impact on Instant On customers, many of whom are small and medium enterprises. The new owners could bring more offerings for these customers….or lack the experience in the networking market to keep Instant On fresh as time goes on.
Steven J. Schuchart Jr, Principal Analyst for Enterprise Security and Infrastructure at GlobalData predicts “The company that buys the HPE Aruba Instant On business will likely be one that doesn’t have a significant presence in the SME/SMB market, or doesn’t have an offering that emphasises simplicity and operational ease like the Instant On solution does.”
As for the licensing of AI Ops for Mist, this presents an opportunity and a boon for customers. It will increase competition while also offering an alternative to the HPE/Juniper version of the software. End customers very well might have some choice in the future, and if nothing else it is considerable motivation for HPE to ensure that its own efforts to advance AI Ops for Mist are robust enough to overcome any competition.
Leveraging HPE and Juniper
Existing customers and near-term buyers of HPE and Juniper solutions today can use this as leverage. Not only will HPE and Juniper be invested in ensuring customers remain with the company, but competitors are motivated to pick off HPE and Juniper customers during this transition period before the deal completes.
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By GlobalData“With 180 days to complete the divestiture of the Instant On business, a reasonable guess is that the deal will finish by the end of 2025 or early 2026” said Schuchart.
Concerns about portfolio rationalisation
Enterprise IT buyers are also concerned about portfolio rationalisation. Portfolio rationalisation is the exercise that HPE will perform after the acquisition, deciding which product and solution lines will be primary and what a merged roadmap will look like.
Buyer’s concerns are around continued sales, service, and support for products and solutions that don’t make the cut. Those concerns are legitimate, but it should be noted that both HPE and Juniper make product/solution transitions all the time and the emphasis is always on taking care of the customer and helping with a future transition.
Sales, services, and support will be long-term, and customers can reasonably expect they can get their value out of the products and solutions they currently own and buy from HPE and Juniper. It would be devastating to either company’s reputation for it to be otherwise.
In the meantime, astute enterprise buyers and networking professionals should keep an eye on developments, if this deal has taught us something it is that anything can happen.
