5. Camille Mendler, Omdia

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) is buying private cellular network technology provider Athonet with the goal of strengthening its private 5G network play.

HPE announced the acquisition of Italy-based Athonet, which has been delivering 4G and 5G mobile cores since its inception in 2005. HPE plans to integrate Athonet’s software with its own to give enterprises an option to deploy Wi-Fi and private 5G services into one single monthly subscription. It will also ultimately integrate Athonet with its Aruba networking portfolio, executives said. HPE’s GreenLake cloud services platform will deliver the offering.

“Given HPE’s Wi-Fi and security assets – like Aruba – I’d say this makes a clear play to simplify management for key enterprise digital assets. And this is the kind of issue that enterprises are often bringing up to us,” Omdia chief analyst of enterprise services Camille Mendler told Channel Futures.

Discover more about HPE’s long-term integration plans.