CRN Exclusive: Ingram Micro Adds Aruba Wireless Equipment Sales and Tech Training For HPE Partners
Ingram Micro has been authorized to offer technical and sales training on Aruba's wireless products for HPE partners.
The Irvine, Calif.-based distributor said HPE now includes Aruba as part of its networking certification requirements. This means the thousands of HPE resellers sourcing through Ingram Micro will need to take some different Aruba-focused classes to get caught up on things like ClearPath network access control, according to Jeff McHenry, Ingram Micro's global vendor business manager.
"The new program is driving activity from legacy HPE folks and legacy Aruba folks and requiring both to come together," McHenry told CRN exclusively.
McHenry says both legacy Aruba and HPE networking partners will see changes as HPE moves to a single Partner Ready networking program. There will be some credit given based on experience, depending on the reseller, but the new, comprehensive training should help traditional HPE resellers move into the wireless space, Richey said.
Ingram Micro is one of just two North American distributors to offer Aruba training, according to Greg Richey, Ingram Micro's director of training and professional services. Aruba has been part of Ingram Micro's line card since 2013 – two years before the vendor was acquired by Hewlett-Packard – and recognized Ingram as its North American distributor of the year in August.
"Aruba creates a new buzz for HPE because they have some terrific wireless network tools that they didn't have in the past," Richey told CRN exclusively. "It fills a void within the HPE business that's on fire."
Solution providers are seeing quick adoption of Aruba products thanks to a greater need for businesses to provide connectivity and manage security within a bring-your-own-device environment, Richey said. Partners can also use Aruba's wireless network assessments and security tools to help identify problems within their own customer base, he said.
A five-day training course typically retails for between $3,000 and $3,500, McHenry said, but Ingram Micro has different ways to attempt to make the coursework more affordable for partners.
Richey said some of the ways Ingram Micro can lower the time or cost burden is by doing symposiums where resellers can get certified en masse, presenting classes virtually whenever possible, and performing physical classes either early in the morning, late in the afternoon or on weekends to minimize disruptions for business owners and their staff.
The volume of Ingram Micro's training business has grown in the mid-double digits over the past year as the distributor has evolved from offering education almost exclusively around IBM to adding training offerings from HP, HPE, Cisco, Acronis and now Aruba, Richey said. Thanks to the new vendors, the total number of student training days through Ingram Micro has grown exponentially, Richey said.
Ingram Micro is capable of taking various vendor certifications offered by OEMs and managing them programmatically so that solution providers can be more organized in training their employees, Richey said. For instance, Richey said Ingram Micro provides an overview of a reseller's entire certification history using a single dashboard that compiles information from a multitude of OEMs.
And as hyper-converged infrastructure gains traction in the channel, Richey said Ingram Micro is focused on providing education around the individual components so that partners can become certified across the entire hyper-converged stack.
Ingram Micro plans to review the certifications held by all existing HPE and Aruba resellers, conduct 1:1 meetings with business owners, and work in tandem with HPE's field team to help partners better understanding Ingram Micro's education and training capabilities, Richey said.
Ingram Micro's investment in training has provided value to partners such as Baroan Technologies by providing the solution providers with additional capabilities that it can resell to clients, said Guy Baroan, founder and president of the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based Ingram Micro partner.
End users have approached Baroan requesting training resources around new products, and Baroan said he has been able to fulfill that need via Ingram Micro.
Although Baroan primarily fulfills its wireless network needs through Ruckus, he's glad to see that Ingram Micro is continuing to expand its education and training offerings.
"This means that we'll have additional resources available to support us," Baroan said. "It's always a benefit."