uniper Networks has brought on Hope Galley, a longtime Cisco global sales leader, as its Americas channel chief, a new role for the company.
“I have accepted the role of Vice President of Americas Channels for Juniper Networks. As we celebrate the principles of this year’s theme, Invest: Accelerate Progress for women, I am proud to be surrounded by such talented individuals,” Galley posted on her LinkedIn on Thursday.
Galley will report to Gordon Mackintosh, group vice president, Juniper partner organization, who has been with the company for more than four years.
Galley, a channel advocate, is known for her close ties with partners. She has more than 30 years of experience shepherding direct and channel teams through industry transformations, and she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the team, a spokesperson for Juniper told CRN.
Galley, a proven sales leader, spent more than two decades as Cisco Systems in a variety of roles. She most recently served as global Meraki sales senior director, routes to market, for more than two years where she was responsible for Meraki’s service providers, channel and ecosystem teams. Prior to her time with the Meraki team, she was Cisco’s senior sales director of software and services for the company’s Americas Partner Organization. She also held other roles for the company during her tenure, including director of U.S. field and public sector services and software and emerging markets leader.
Juniper Networks is in the throes of a $14 billion acquisition in which the networking specialist is set to become part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The deal is expected to boost competition with networking market heavyweight Cisco. The tie up between the two companies is expected to close at the end of calendar year 2024 or the beginning of 2025.
C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company and a top HPE partner, said he sees Juniper’s hiring of Galley as Americas channel chief as another sign that HPE and Juniper are going all in to grab networking market share from Cisco.
“The door is wide open for HPE Juniper to take share in networking against Cisco,” said Howdyshell. “I see this as complementary with HPE GreenLake and networking as a service with Aruba. We are making a bet financially and with additional resources that HPE Juniper will thrive, and this just reinforces that bet. This is just another sign that HPE with Juniper is doubling down on their investments to partner with the channel,” he said.
Howdyshell said he sees Juniper with Juniper Mist driving innovation into the core of the network with AI in contrast to the Cisco network strategy. That HPE Juniper AI network innovation strategy compliments Advizex’s own AI strategy which includes the recent Fulcrum acquisition of AI pioneer Razor, opening up big new AI opportunities for Advizex, said Howdyshell.
“This complements our long-term strategy around AI as a service,” he said. “Building AI into the core of the network with Juniper Mist provides a huge competitive advantage against Cisco. Our priorities this year are consumption, hybrid cloud and AI. You can’t have an AI strategy without an AI networking strategy.”
Advizex is deepening its ties with Juniper in the wake of the HPE Juniper deal, said Howdyshell. ”We want to be a big part of the Juniper HPE go to market,” he said. “I’m looking forward to speaking with Hope Galley about the Juniper HPE opportunity. There is clear commitment from HPE and Juniper where they are going with investment and resources to build a consistent go to market that will 100 percent be channel-led.”
“To our partners, I promise to listen, learn, and lead together with you … The future is bright for Juniper and our partners. Now let’s get to work changing the world!” Galley wrote in her post.