Aruba, WWT Score Comcast Business Secure Work From Home Deal

“Work from home has become a strategic imperative,” said Keerti Melkote, founder and president of Aruba, an HPE company, in an interview with CRN. “Hybrid work is the way of the the future…Remote AP and the (Aruba) work from home products have become very important in a post pandemic world.”

Aruba and World Wide Technology (WWT), No. 9 on the 2020 CRN SP500, have won a blockbuster pact with internet provider Comcast Business on a secure work from home solution for businesses.

The new Comcast Business Teleworker VPN solution, which is powered by the Aruba Edge Services (ESP) platform, provides enterprise class security for work at home.

WWT, the $12 billion solution provider behemoth, one of Aruba and HPE’s top global partners, is a fulfillment partner on the Comcast deal.

[RELATED: Aruba Networks‘ Keerti Melkote: The Edge Is The ’Exact Opposite’ Of The Cloud]

Aruba and HPE are part of WWT’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC), where customers can evaluate and gain hands-on access to HPE technology including Aruba intelligent edge solutions.

Aruba ESP – which is gaining momentum in the channel- allows partners to centrally manage work at home from a single Aruba Central cloud console. It supports everything from laptops and desktops to VoIP phones and printers in a work at home environment.

Keerti Melkote (pictured), founder and president of Aruba, an HPE company, said he sees a booming work at home opportunity for partners in the wake of the global pandemic.

Aruba remote access points are the most important product sales opportunity for partners going into the new HPE fiscal year which begins Nov. 1, said Melkote.

“Work from home has become a strategic imperative,” said Melkote in an interview with CRN. “Hybrid work is the way of the the future…Remote AP and the (Aruba) work from home products have become very important in a post pandemic world.”

Aruba has architected the work at home solutions to be set up as virtual gateways using Aruba ESP. “There is not a competitive equivalent in the market right now,” Melkote said

Partnering with internet providers like Comcast, AT&T or Verizon is critical to providing a complete managed service around the Aruba remote access points, said Melkote. The key for MSPs is providing the same “non-stop, WiFi experience that corporations get in the office” at home, said Melkote. “That is very, very important low hanging fruit for partners to go take advantage of,” he said.

The average work at home remote access solution starts at $300 to $500- not including the managed services provided by MSPs, said Melkote.

The MSP call to action is to get educated on the Aruba hybrid work at home solutions and offer it as a managed service, said Melkote.

“Don’t just offer it as a product,” he said. “It has a software component to it. Solution providers can take the remote AP, take a broadband line, take the software to operate it and wrap it together in a managed service. We’ll help them do that.”

Paul Cohen, vice president of sales for New York-based PKA Technologies Inc., an HPE Platinum and Aruba partner, said he sees a significant opportunity teaming with Aruba, targeting corporate work at home initiatives with PKA SolveIT managed service wireless solutions.

A large percentage of customers moved to work at home solutions that did not meet corporate security and network reliability standards, said Cohen. “A lot of our commercial customers are asking us to do work at home security and network reliability assessments,” he said.

Cohen credited Melkote with continuing to advance the Aruba intelligent edge architecture as best in class against any and all competitors. “Keerti continues to drive innovation at a pace that is difficult for the competiton to keep up,” he said.