The session marks a significant milestone as the first appearance of the combined HPE, Aruba, and Juniper Mist entities following their recent merger. The speakers emphasize their commitment to a self-driving network philosophy, arguing that simply having a network up does not equate to a quality user experience. By merging the talent and assets of Aruba and Mist, HPE aims to create a singular, autonomous ecosystem that can perceive, fix, and validate network issues without human intervention.

HPE outlines three primary pillars that define their vision: built-in security, a microservices-based infrastructure, and an experience-first agentic approach. The security pillar focuses on a convergence where networking and protection work together seamlessly from the device to the cloud. On the infrastructure side, the team highlights a common cloud-native foundation that leverages both hardware and software to deliver reliable outcomes. Most importantly, the agentic pillar relies on episodic memory--ten years of experiential data used to reinforce AI models and ensure that autonomous actions are truly validated rather than just based on raw data lakes.

The session also serves as a launchpad for several major announcements, including the introduction of the first access point capable of booting to either Aruba Central or Mist platforms. This "no customer left behind" strategy ensures that existing users of both portfolios can transition toward the self-driving vision regardless of their starting point. The speakers compare this architectural approach to a mobile app that is built once and deployed across both iOS and Android, allowing HPE to develop advanced microservices and Large Experience Models that function across their unified networking landscape.

Presented by Jeff Aaron, VP Product and Solutions Marketing, and Sujai Hajela, EVP Campus and Branch. Recorded live at Mobility Field Day 14 in San Jose, CA on May 6, 2026. Watch the entire presentation at https://techfieldday.com/appearance/hpe-presents-at-mobility-field-day-14/ or visit https://TechFieldDay.com/event/mfd14 or https://www.hpe.com/us/en/networking.html for more information.