Keerti Melkote, who has been at the helm of Aruba Networks for nearly two decades as the company’s founder and president, revealed this week that he was leaving the company. The networking giant, under the direction of Melkote, has spent the past 19 years giving competitors a run for their money with its innovative Wi-Fi and intelligent edge solutions. Melkote said that if there was ever a time to consider leaving, it would be now, considering the company’s strength in the market and impressive growth it’s seen recently, despite a global pandemic that stressed the IT industry and enterprise buying trends.
Aruba Networks Founder Keerti Melkote spoke with CRN about why now was the time to leave Aruba, why Aruba’s portfolio is “on fire” with edge, SASE, and next-generation connectivity solutions, and how HPE CEO Antonio Neri has been Aruba’s “biggest cheerleader.”
Aruba Networks partner weigh in on founder and president Keerti Melkote, the company's leader of more than 19 years, retiring as HPE promises no changes to Aruba's structure or strategy.
HPE Aruba Founder, Network Visionary Keerti Melkote Is Leaving HPE
“I’m incredibly grateful for his leadership, and I have personally benefitted from his counsel, knowledge and friendship,” said HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “Keerti will remain as an advisor to me for the remainder of [HPE Fiscal Year] 2021.” By Steven Burke June 01, 2021, 10:21 PM EDT
Keerti Melkote, who founded Aruba Networks and built it into a powerful cloud-first alternative to networking behemoth Cisco Systems, has stepped aside as president of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s intelligent edge business as of June 1.
Melkote is being replaced by HPE Senior Vice President of the Communications Group Phil Mottram, a seasoned 30-year telecommunications veteran who has worked at Vodafone, AT&T, Sprint, British Telecom, and Telstra. Before joining HPE two years ago, Mottram was Chief Revenue Officer for the Zayo Group, a mission-critical fiber bandwidth provider.
HPE’s Aruba Business Is Accelerating With Triple-Digit Growth In Edge As A Service
“We are very bullish about this business,” said HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “We expect this business to continue to grow double digits for the balance of the year. And as we add more functionality to our cloud platform, particularly with edge computing and 5G, we are going to accelerate that momentum.” By Steven Burke June 01, 2021, 10:00 PM EDT
Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s intelligent edge business is accelerating, with its edge-as-a-service business growing in the triple digits for the most recent quarter.
The Aruba Edge Service Platform—which includes SD-WAN from the recent HPE Silver Peak acquisition—is coming into its own as a “meaningful contributor” to HPE’s overall annualized revenue run rate, said HPE CEO Antonio Neri.