Infinigate and Westcoast have both been handed a role in HPE’s post-Juniper UK distribution landscape, with the former given a beefed-up networking brief.
HPE in May appointed two global distributors in the form of Ingram Micro and TD Synnex, following the closure of $14bn networking acquisition Juniper Networks.
At the time, the vendor stressed it was “evaluating its distributor mix for each country around the world”, adding that it expected to share an update in “due course”.
Announcements from Infinigate and Westcoast this morning confirm the two global broadliners won’t have the UK market all to themselves.
Previously just a Juniper distributor, Infinigate will now enjoy access to the wider HPE Networking portfolio, including Aruba.
Staunch HP/HPE ally Westcoast will continue to have access to the entire portfolio including Juniper, Aruba and HPE’s server and storage kit, meanwhile.
“Head start”
With Ingram and TD Synnex understood to have gained access to Juniper in the UK, the number of UK Juniper distributors has apparently doubled to four (HPE would not comment to confirm the overall line-up).
However, talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Westcoast CRO Phil Bell said the Theale-based distributor’s HPE Networking pedigree will give it a “head start” over the competition.
“Going from two to four obviously isn’t ideal, but because we’re the only one that had both Aruba and Juniper I think we’re really well placed to continue to drive that,” he said.
The “optimism” currently coming out of the networking market (Cisco’s CEO earlier this month said the market is currently at the start of a “super cycle”) means “the pie is going to get bigger anyway”, Bell added.
“We feel like we’ve got a head start, and we feel like the the networking market’s in a really good place,” Bell said.
Although HPE’s global distribution shake-up appears to have resulted in no major line-up changes in the UK, on a recent Q2 earnings call TD Synnex CEO Patrick Zammit characterised it as a “rationalisation” of HPE’s go-to-market, saying HPE would focus on “two global distributors in certain areas”.
“What we see more and more from the vendors is that being global is becoming the differentiator when they rationalise their go-to markets,” Zammit said.
“We think that probably there’s more to come. Other vendors are now looking at their global distribution landscape.”
HPE is also gearing up to integrate front-line Juniper partners, meanwhile – in June it revealed that the HPE and Juniper Networks partner programmes will come under the HPE Partner Ready Vantage roof from 1 November.
In a canned statement, Justin Griffiths, RVP UKI and ANZ at Infinigate, said: “This expanded collaboration creates a compelling growth opportunity for Infinigate and our channel partners.
“By combining our channel expertise with HPE’s innovation, we can help partners enable customers to realise the value of AI-driven, self-managing networks – accelerating transformation and simplifying operations.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
