EXPERIENCE AT THE EDGE

Sherifa Hady, Channel Sales Director, EMEA, Aruba, a Hewlett Pacard Enterprise company discusses the company’s focus in enabling the experience at the edge

What is the role that Aruba plays in digital transformation initiatives that are underway at most companies, with some relatively ahead and some just starting out?

Enterprise and SMB segment companies have indeed gone through some kind of digital transformation in terms of how IT can help their business outcomes, and not just being a cost centre.

Our strategy revolves around 4 aspects- connect, protect, analyze and act. Connectivity in terms of hardware is at the root of what we do in terms of our networking solutions. With more and more devices connected outside of the datacenter, there is a need for better security, which is the second aspect of our focus. Hence, we are going to see more and more security being embedded into products. In future, every product will have security embedded. With more and more devices connected, we need to enable for customers a preemptive way in whihc they can look at connectivity bottlenecks and improve from the perspective of future risks, look at security issues etc. The next is to act on the analysis so that the business doesn’t have bear the impact of issues that haven’t been corrected. We have software management tools to analyze aspects like high bandwidth areas, lower bandwidth tools etc so that IT managers can look how to rearrange.

How are you focused on enabling partners? What are their pain points and how shoukd they be evolving?

Customers first and customers last is the basis of our got to market strategy. Customer requirements these days are very different these days from earlier years when the reseller could just sell them the products and enjoy the

— By Diksha Vohra

Sherifa Hady Channel Sales Director, EMEA, Aruba

margins. We are going to see less and less of that model and more and more of the services model in this decade.

There will be requirements for partners to provide a whole new set of services to customers. The requirements could be more for consumption models of using IT. Some of the customers may come up with the requirements that they do not want to incur costs on product purchases and training costs and they would rather want the partners to come in and give these as services. So rather than look at outright costs, they will want hardware as a service, software as a service, networking as a service etc.

Our partners are obviously going through a transformation themselves. We are enabling them through trainings and resources. We do see a lot of companies that are heading in that direction.

We see a lot of partners providing those services. Other entities, for instance the Telcos that weren’t necessarily into reselling IT earlier are now among the largest managed service providers. Distributors are also rethinking their roles in the future.

What is Aruba Airpass about briefly?

Aruba Air Pass is a new service to automatically and securely authenticate guests with public cellular network credentials on private enterprise Wi-Fi networks. It is built on the technical foundations of Passpoint and Wi-Fi Calling and creates a roaming network across the Aruba enterprise customer footprint, extending cellular coverage and enhancing the visitor and subscriber experience. With Aruba Air Pass, subscribers of any participating mobile network will enjoy seamless and secure guest access to Wi-Fi networks in all participating enterprise venues Thus is about providing a seamless connectivity experience to our customers.

Do you think 5G and WiFi6 could possible witness fast traction in terms of market growth?

It is not too early at all for 5G and WiFi6. We have had a lot of discussion around the benefits of both. 5G and WiFi6 together will be a powerful combination, providing higher bandwidth, better connectivity and all our products being launched from now and in future will be enabled with these. This will result in seamless connectivity, enabling faster downloads, faster uploads and so on at the edge where in future you are going to see more and more devices connected, outside the data center.

Is there a traction currently for edge networking deployments in the Middle East?

There is so much potential and partners are quite excited looking at what solutions we offer. Taking the example of what we call the Experience economy, we are focused on how we can enable our SMB and mid-market customers get more out of their customers in turn. There is so much more Banks can do or retailers can do out of the experience economy and there is so much uptake and interest from our partners and customers. Aruba’s Experience Edge platform intuitively assimilates existing cloud, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) data into a simple, single system to transform customer experiences.

Which verticals are key focus for you?

The Digital workplace is a key focus and we have the solutions for enabling it. Hospitality is a key vertical as is Healthcare in terms of device management, asset management, location services etc. Education is a huge opportunity in terms of enabling access for students, access for campus, branch etc. Industries like Oil & Gas or my surroundings and know what kind of shops I am looking at, sending me some discount offers. At the end of the day, the services are meant for increasing revenues for retailers. At the same time, there are also more opportunities such as for smart city initiatives, in education like helping a student in a university campus to a classroom etc.

How are partner specializations?

Expectations from partners two years ago was different from what we expect from our partners in future, two years on. Two years ago, it was about their competencies to some extent, certifications etc. Going ahead, we need to move into looking more at what services they can offer. Certifications

"5G and WiFi6 together will be a powerful combination, providing higher bandwidth, better connectivity and all our products being launched from now and in future will be enabled with these"

manufacturing where IT is becoming a norm than rarity are key verticals. Also retail and venues like stadiums are also areas of opportunities for us, depending on the market.

In the Middle East, we are doing best in hospitality, compared to other market in EMEA. In healthcare as well, we have some good case studies.

Please elaborate on how Location based services is growing?

Location based services helps in retail specifically and in other segments as well. Retailers can take information from me and feed some information if they use location based services. In mall for instance, they can monitor will continue and what the partner can provide in terms of a service to a customer, and of course the programs like rebates will follow. We are at a turning point in terms of our partner programs.

We work closely with the channel and 90% of our business across MEA is through the channel.

We are having daily calls with partners to understand what they need to help their Business, if they need any. Health of our employees is top priority and the company is doing a lot around ensuring that during this pandemic but at the same time, there are opportunities in the market at the end of the day and we are trying to ensure Business continuity.