What to watch with HPE buying Silver Peak
HPE announced today they will acquire Silver Peak for $925 million to bolster their SD-WAN portfolio. This officially kicks-off the summer season of large technology acquisitions and one to watch over the coming months. Sliver Peak took a Series F round in mid 2018 and is best known as one of the early pioneers in SD-WAN.
Some areas to watch will be:
- The position of the Zscaler partnership and deeper ability to leverage HPE’s existing integrations.
- Silver Peak and the Aruba platform combining to deliver a robust solution into the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) market. Aruba for example, has a focused integration with the AWS Transit Gateway Network.
- Further investment into Cloud based Collaboration Solutions such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Will HPE combine a deep turn-key Silver Peak SD-WAN bundle packed with security down the remote user? (especially broadband remote workers?)
Consolidation is a natural occurrence and our advice to customers who have Silver Peak solutions in-line is to allow Macronet Services to assist with a transition. This transition might not be a physical or SD move per se, we are referring to guiding customers through the acquisition process. Our team has methodically assisted clients through technology acquisitions within vendor relationships in parallel of technology by way of:
- Account Management: There is potential an account owned by your local team could in be re-assigned to the acquiring company field team day 1 of a new fiscal year. When this happens, Macronet has a seamless process to transition account information and assist with governance, working with the new account manager moving forward.
- Billing: Generally, your Master Services Agreements, Maintenance Contracts etc. would be honored unless counsel specifically drafted non-traditional clauses at time of signing. This is good news. However, larger companies will often require payment options to change via new EFT/Bank Authorization, Credit Card processing etc. When you do not pay close to attention to these announcement changes, remitting payment could miss a reconciliation resulting in possible termination of services.
- Support: Keep a careful watch on your day 2 support structure and methods to open tickets. Generally, these teams & process will not change overnight, however we have seen organizations look to utilize existing operating centers for low severity tickets.
- Product Roadmap: Macronet Services quickly works with vendors to understand roadmap initiatives, identifying any changes which could impact clients. Often the path forward is status-quo until federal approvals are granted. However, projects not “eyed” in the transaction as critical to the exit are often shelved or discontinued. Knowing where your technology stands relative the larger plan is paramount.
- Consolidation: Do you have services with the acquiring company you could consolidate into a longer-term MSA and master spend to obtain more favorable terms? We help many organizations look to consolidate contracts for favorable terms as companies do consider potential churn during this transition and would rather avoid it.
When in doubt, asking more questions outside of the standard FAQ you receive during the acquisition process is our advice. Please reach out to us if we can help you along this journey.