Aruba's products and services comprise HPE's Intelligent Edge segment. Aruba offers a line of products that include wired and wireless local area network hardware such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, sensors as well as network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location services software. It also offers professional services and support for its products. Aruba's products supply 90% of its revenue and services supply the rest.

Geographic Reach

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Aruba has offices in New York and Canada as well as China, India, Japan, and Europe.

Sales and Marketing

Aruba sells its products directly and through value-added distributors, resellers, and original equipment manufacturers. 

Financial Performance

Aruba's revenue, as reported in HPE's Intelligent Edge segment, has grown from 2016-2018, the three years it has been a part of HPE. A divestiture caused revenue to dip in 2017.

Aruba provided $2.9 billion in sales to the parent company in 2018 compared to $2.58 billion in 2017 and $2.6 billion in 2016. Product revenue increased 14% on stronger sales of Aruba branded campus switching and edge products. Services revenue rose 12% due primarily to services for the installed base of products.

Aruba's operating income fell to $237 million in 2018 from $253 million in 2017 due to lower margin products accounting for a higher portion of sales and greater research and development costs.

Strategy

HPE has made Aruba's networking products and services the company's top priority, pledging to invest $4 billion in the segment over four years. The company says that 75% of data is created at the edge of the network (on mobile devices and the Internet of Things) and customers want to access and analyze the information in real time.

HPE is not the only company to see money on the edge. Competitors include networking powerhouse such as Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Juniper Networks, Dell Technologies Inc., and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. HPE seeks to leverage the scope of its broad customer base to bring similar heft to its networking portfolio.