Enhancements for Aruba Partners, New SME-focused Channel Team, and Products Designed for the SME Will Help Tackle Needs of Small to Mid-Sized Enterprises
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) today announced that it is expanding
its Aruba PartnerEdge Program to better address the needs of small to
mid-sized enterprises (SME) and the channel partners that serve them.
With recently introduced 802.11ac products designed for the SME, a wide
variety of new programs, promotions and SME enablement support, as well
as a focused SME channel team, Aruba will target both the authorized and
non-authorized partner community with a goal to bring new, authorized
partners on board across the globe.
With its Aruba
Central cloud management solution and Instant
controllerless access points, Aruba has already experienced
significant growth among SMEs who are looking for the critical
performance and security features of enterprise-grade WLANs with the
simplicity, scalability and affordability of controllerless management.
The recently-announced 200
Series, a set of introductory-level dual radio APs that are ideal
for medium density SME Wi-Fi environments and the 210
Series AP for high-performance requirements in medium density SME
deployments, have further expanded the options for small to mid-sized
enterprises looking to upgrade to 802.11ac cost-effectively.
Furthermore, the addition of more than 200 channel partners – just since
August 1st of this year – is expected to help Aruba expand
its reach into the SME space.
“The traction we’ve experienced with Aruba Instant and Aruba Central, as
well as the significant number of partners we’ve signed in such a short
timeframe indicates that our Aruba Cloud Wi-Fi Solution is quickly
becoming the WLAN solution of choice for SMEs,” said Karl Soderlund,
vice president, worldwide channels for Aruba Networks. “Given this
dynamic, we recognized that building the SME channel and ensuring that
our partners have the right training, tools and perks to drive business
opportunities was critical to our continued success.”
“As an Aruba platinum partner for nearly 10 years, we are continually
impressed with their innovation and commitment to providing the
best-in-class enterprise solutions,” said Ron Fowler, CEO of Structured
Communication Systems, Inc. “The addition of new, relevant solutions for
the small to mid-sized enterprise market enables us to expand our
customer offerings and ultimately grow our business in multiple sectors.”
According to the Dell’Oro Group estimates, the annual SME WLAN market
opportunity could approach $1.3 billion in several years, as SMEs and
distributed enterprises seek to upgrade both from small office/home
office (SOHO) class devices as well as toward higher-performing 802.11ac
devices. For context, just over half of today’s SME WLAN market is
served by enterprise-class devices, presenting a large sales opportunity.
With its Aruba PartnerEdge Program as a foundation, Aruba is adding
training, promotions and sales enablement support for the SME market to
ensure that new partners can quickly ramp and develop solutions
expertise. Each partner will go through a 90-day onboarding cycle that
includes the following:
-
Aruba Partner portal access and Aruba Quotient mobile application
-
Dedicated support from an Inside Channel Account Manager and Inside
Channel SE
-
Demo equipment offers
-
Access to deal registration financial incentives
-
Preferred pricing and targeted promotions to drive incremental business
-
Cloud Wi-Fi training with a 30-day license to use Aruba Central
-
Free sales specialist training and certifications
Authorized partners will also receive a limited number of technical
training vouchers each fiscal year to cover a wide variety of
certifications that are required to progress within the Aruba
PartnerEdge Program.
In addition, a number of promotions have been designed specifically for
the SME channel. Aruba will offer SME customers a special, $50 Aruba
Central introductory price, as well as a buy four, get one free Instant
AP promotion. Aruba will also offer partners a K-12 promotion bundling
Aruba Central or AirWave with Instant APs, a discount for new and
dormant partners and a $20 per Instant AP spiff for partner
representatives. Distributors can take advantage of a 10% back-end
rebate on Instant APs and Aruba Central bundles.
To support this targeted SME channel effort, Aruba has adapted its
internal organization, as well. A devoted SME channel team, based in
Aruba’s Portland, Oregon office, will focus on the SME channel
particularly in the areas of partner recruitment, enablement and demand
generation. Aruba plans to expand the SME channel team globally before
the end of calendar year 2014.
SmartLayer
Business Solutions, a newly added authorized Aruba partner, provides
customized services and advanced technology solutions for SMEs. “Our
target customers are seeking enterprise-class mobility solutions and
services that are easy-to-deploy and manage,” said Shivam Aggarwal,
President, SmartLayer Business Solutions. “With Aruba’s wide range of
advanced 802.11ac controllerless access points and expanded support
infrastructure, we are able to attract more small to
mid-sized enterprises with a mobility solution that is ideal for their
specific business requirements.”
Additional Resources
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access
solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers
Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a
new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for
every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility
experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined
Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and
trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention.
The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational
costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in
Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more,
visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter
and Facebook,
and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products
visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
© 2014 Aruba Networks, Inc. Aruba Networks’ trademarks include Aruba
Networks®, Aruba The Mobile Edge Company® (stylized), Aruba
Mobility-Defined Networks™, Aruba Mobility Management System®, People
Move Networks Must Follow®, Mobile Edge Architecture®, RFProtect®, Green
Island®, ETips®, ClientMatchTM, Virtual
Intranet AccessTM, ClearPass Access Management
SystemsTM, Aruba InstantTM,
ArubaOSTM, xSecTM,
ServiceEdgeTM, Aruba ClearPass Access
Management SystemTM, AirmeshTM,
AirWaveTM, Aruba CentralTM,
and “ARUBA@WORKTM. All rights reserved. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements
regarding Aruba’s expected growth in the SME space. These
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as
assumptions, which if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect,
could cause Aruba’s results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties
that could cause Aruba’s results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, among
others: business and economic conditions and growth trends in the
networking industry, changes in overall information technology spending,
the effectiveness of Aruba’s new inside sales strategy,as well as those
risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors" and
“Management’s Discussion and Analysis” in Aruba’s most recent Forms 10-K
and 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC,
and available on the investor relations portion of our website at ir.arubanetworks.com
and on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on
information available to Aruba as of the date of this release, and Aruba
does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking
statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist
after the date on which they were made.
Aruba Networks, Inc.
Pavel Radda, Director of Corporate Communications, +1-408-419-0294
pradda@arubanetworks.com
OR
LSH Communications for Aruba Networks
Lori Hultin, Principal, +1-818-879-4651
lhultin@arubanetworks.com