It's time to make Wi-Fi smarter
Today's level of complexity cannot be managed manually. Not reliably. Not at scale. While competitors race to bolt AI onto legacy architectures, HPE is delivering AI-native wired and wireless networks that are designed to interpret continuous telemetry streams, understand intent, and adapt automatically as conditions change. And the impact is already visible today. Organizations that adopt HPE AI-native networks consistently see fewer support tickets, fewer site visits, and faster deployments. Start your journey to AI-native Wi-Fi and campus switching with HPE.
Furthest in vision. Highest in execution.
HPE positioned furthest in "Completeness of Vision" and Highest for "Ability to Execute" in 2026 Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure by Gartner® for fifth consecutive time.
Self-driving networks. Not bolt-on AI.
HPE Networking delivers the first self-driving network for wireless built on a decade of proven AIOps innovation. This means APs that use AI to optimize resource radio management dynamically–not on a daily schedule–and trusted autonomous actions that span wireless, wired, and WAN to deliver the best possible user experience.
AI-native APs and switches
HPE's AI-native APs and switches have built-in telemetry that enables organizations to continuously observe, reason, and act to optimize user and application experiences across the network. HPE identifies issues competitors often miss—helping IT teams move beyond reactive troubleshooting toward autonomous operations to deliver experience-first networking.
Experience-first networking
Unlike competitors who offer limited insight into the wired and wireless experience, HPE measures service level expectations–going beyond simple uptime metrics. And only HPE uses patented, built-in virtual BLE to help organizations drive better location-aware experiences.
Integral security
Unified wired and wireless policy enforcement scales to seamless support campus and branch environments. Unlike the competition, HPE also delivers AI-native, multi-vendor client profiling that identifies and remediates rogue attacks. There is no need to deploy and integrate additional on-premises security to deliver a zero-trust framework.
The competitive landscape
Experience-first Wi-Fi and wired architecture
HPE Networking
Focus on experience-first. Correlates user, application, and network data to quantify real experience using service level expectations (SLEs), pinpoint root causes, and drive autonomous remediation.
Cisco
Cisco has been focused on telemetry often requiring multiple tools for correlation. Cloud Control which is not get generally available will attempt to unify across Cisco domains but is centered on network-focused insights rather than native, dedicated user/application experience metrics like SLEs.
Built-in AI for Microsoft Teams and Zoom optimizations
HPE Networking
Yes. Ensures performance with a Large Experience Model (LEM) that integrates user experience metrics from Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other applications and applies AI to predict and resolve issues before users are impacted.
Cisco
Does not include built-in, AI-native telemetry and experience assurance for Zoom and Teams applications. Relies on multiple products and manual integrations.
Innovation at speed
HPE Networking
Yes. AI‑native, microservices‑based HPE Aruba Central and HPE Mist are purpose‑built for distributed intelligence and rapid cross‑platform innovation.
Cisco
Cisco is working to unify multiple existing platforms through Cloud Control, but the underlying architecture still reflects historically separate systems whereas HPE’s AI-native platforms (Aruba Central and Mist) are built as unified cloud architectures from the start.
Trust-based, self-driving actions for Wi-Fi and wired
HPE Networking
Shipping since 2025, HPE provides assisted and fully self‑driving actions including dynamic capacity optimization, DFS optimization, port stuck, and rogue DHCP actions.
Cisco
Not yet delivered—Cisco has not delivered a single self‑driving action since announcing AI Canvas.
Scalability
HPE Networking
Yes. Wireless and wired at enterprise‑scale for growing organizations.
Cisco
Cisco Catalyst Center and Meraki are limited to 35k devices per tenant each, restricting large enterprise scale.
Integral security
HPE Networking
AI‑native security authentication built‑in from client-to-cloud with consistent policy enforcement across wired and wireless networks to support zero trust.
Cisco
While Cisco Cloud Control improves cross-domain visibility and operations, core security policy management and enforcement still primarily happens in the dedicated Security Cloud Control (SCC).
Integrated location services using Virtual Bluetooth (vBLE)
HPE Networking
Patented 16-element vBLE antenna array enables dynamic beam forming for moving devices and unlimited virtual beacons per AP. Native Wi-Fi and BLE plus 3rd party integrations for BLE, UWB, LiDAR, Wi-Fi and RADAR.
Cisco
Single, omni-directional BLE antenna; additional third-party battery-powered BLE beacons required for coverage. 3rd party integrations required for BLE and UWB.
API-first architecture
HPE Networking
100% open API architecture is designed for bulk data retrieval over time and to support analytics and telemetry workloads. HPE Networking APIs improve workflow automation across the broader IT ecosystem (i.e. ServiceNow, MCP, Python).
Cisco
Cisco uses platform-specific APIs so cross-domain visibility typically requires integrating multiple platform-specific APIs (Catalyst Center, Meraki, etc.), Meraki APIs have strict per-second rate limits and shared API budgets, which can limit scalability.
Why customers are choosing HPE
Customers large and small are moving from their legacy wired and wireless environments to HPE to experience fast, reliable, and secure connectivity with:
- Experience-first wired and wireless monitoring, providing deep visibility into users, applications, and devices.
- AI-native infrastructure based on more than 10 years of data science and user service level metrics to proactively and autonomously remediate issues before users are impacted.
- Integral security to protect against rogue clients and enforce unified policies across wired and wired networks.