Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has completed its purchase of Italian private core networking specialist Athonet. The US outfit hailed it as “a major leap forward… to revolutionize the private networking market”. It said it would do this, “in part”, by “simplifying and accelerating” private 5G. At the same time, implicitly acknowledging its late entry, it said the acquisition “primes us for a key position in the fast-growing private cellular market”; it quoted an IDC forecast that the market will be worth over $1.6 billion by 2026, just for core networking.
The deal closed yesterday (June 15). Athonet claims to have deployed 450 private LTE and 5G networks, in sunset enterprise sectors. HPE said it is pitching a “holistic [and] straightforward” core network proposition to both telecom providers “to unlock new revenue streams” and to enterprises to drive efficiencies, insights, and automation. Writing in a blog post, Tom Craig, general manager of HPE’s comms-tech group, said the old Athonet business, doing well already, will benefit from HPE’s “international sales team and global partner network”.
He said: “The true value of 5G lies with enterprises rather than consumers. The billions of dollars spent on acquiring spectrum and deploying 5G networks will not be covered by consumer customers; instead the opportunity lies with enterprise use cases. Private 5G is by far the most exciting enterprise use case for 5G, offering high levels of coverage, reliability and mobility that augments the cost-effective, high-capacity connectivity provided by Wi-Fi… Bringing private 5G and Wi-Fi together is the future of enterprise connectivity.”
The reference to holistic simplicity, and suchlike, is about HPE’s provision of an integrated edge computing hardware portfolio, also including enterprise Wi-Fi gear. Craig said: “Our comprehensive private 5G, managed Wi-Fi, secure access edge (SASE), and edge compute portfolios positions us perfectly to empower both telcos and enterprises on their private networking journeys.” On the SASE aspect, it might be noted HPE announced a deal in March to acquire US-based cloud security provider Axis Security, to offer a unified SASE solution to enterprises.
He said the “immediate opportunity” for HPE is with its existing telco customer base. “The monetization of network infrastructure has become increasingly complex as hyperscalers continue to extend their footprint into the telecom space. Telcos need to find ways to create value beyond basic data delivery and unlock new revenue-generating services. The emergence of private 5G… presents a remarkable opportunity for telcos, with enterprise customers demanding customized 5G experiences that offer low latency, increased reliability and extended range.”
Craig added: “My team is ready to hit the ground running… HPE is setting the stage for tremendous growth and innovation in the private networking portfolio by integrating Athonet’s expertise into our existing telco and HPE Aruba Networking enterprise offerings, and leveraging HPE’s global sales and partner ecosystem. This acquisition is a powerful statement of our commitment to extending our leadership in edge-to-cloud solutions… The future of private networking is here, and we’re ready to lead the way.”
