And the award goes too...

Last Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of hosting, alongside Julie Barbieri , the first-ever combined 惠普企业服务 & HPE Aruba Networking channel awards evening. With so many of our partners selling the entire HPE Edge-to-Cloud portfolio, it made sense to pack out a cracking venue and celebrate as one! And boy did our partners pack it out; within a minute of the event kicking off, it was clear the usual 50% Sydney drop-off rate was not a factor; our partners spoke with their feet that a joint event was the way to go!?I'd be mad not to recognise the efforts of Felicity Purdham , Jessica Huang & Hannah Duong in getting this event up and running. You ladies make our channel events hum ????

The evening was all about our partner community. Their success is our success, and we will always be grateful! They have had patience with us through the ongoing supply chain issues, came on board the journey for our 'as-a-service' transformation, and yet they still managed to go out and win BIG, taking us to our biggest year on record...AGAIN!. A big congratulations on an incredible FY22; we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. Bring on FY23 - we can't wait to see what they do!?

Time to recognise our incredible award winners. When choosing our winners, we based it on several metrics. We looked at overall revenue, YoY growth, net new business, strategic wins, alignment to our strategy, certification, partnership, and collaboration.?

The first award is for the?SMB Partner of the Year. We launched our SMB product line (Aruba?InstantON) several years ago, targeting an area of the market we didn't play in. Playing in this space has opened our eyes to a new set of partners, different from our traditional selling motion, like our nominees Auscomp Computers Pty Ltd , Triforce Australia ? & Datacom The winner excelled in this new way of selling. With a focus on SMB customers with minimal IT skills, they've built great content and collateral to hit the market at scale, created a great set of technical skills on Aruba, and their scalable national e-commerce business is perfect for Aruba?InstantON. Well done to? Auscomp Computers Pty Ltd

Next up -?Edge Partner of the Year?- this award is about recognising our partners with HQs outside the 3 most populated cities in Australia. They're out there creating solutions for all types of customers in areas where our presence may not be as significant. The nominations were? MicrotechDPS ?in regional NSW,? CBR Cyber ?&? a23 ?in Canberra, and finally,? Iocane ?&? Nuago ?in Adelaide. The winner has gone from relative obscurity in the Aruba world to an absolute hero. They've climbed up our partnership ranks and cultivated a solid reputation for us in Canberra, winning strategic deals and growing over 1000% YoY. Well done to CBR Cyber ?????

Our?Rising Star Award?is about recognising those partners that have popped up on our radar recently and excelled, they may not have the history in the market with Aruba that others do. Still, the trajectory they're on means something special is brewing. We have the likes of? Nexon Asia Pacific ,? Spirit Technology Solutions , VECTEC ,? CBR Cyber ,?and? AFFINITY BLUE . All the nominees have incredible technical capability and strong customer relationships in the market. The winner, however, has a long history?with?Aruba as an individual. He went out on his own a couple of years ago and has become a pivotal partner for us. With over 120% YoY growth and second-to-none professional services, the award goes to? AFFINITY BLUE .

On to our?MSP Partner of the Year?- we love when partners build their own branded offerings in market that are powered by Aruba in the background. That's what this award is all about. For FY22, we had? VostroNet ?(now? Superloop ),? Centorrino Technologies ?&? Atturra Managed Services . With a go-to-market rebrand over the last 18 months, and Aruba underpinning their 'Connect' offering, when they win, we win. Congratulations to? Atturra Managed Services !

The?Distributor of the Year?nominations for FY22 are? Arrow ECS ANZ ?&? Dicker Data . We look to our?distributors?to do a lot for us, and we love that all our?distributors?truly add value when called upon. The winner topped our order growth and showed positive metrics in everything we look for from a?disti. On top of that, they showed excellence in marketing and enablement. Well done? Arrow ECS ANZ .

Our?Silver Partner of the Year?award is for the heartbeat of our channel community. Over 30 partners make up this category, with the nominations coming down to 3. We have the well-established, perennial ARN mid-market partner winners in? blueAPACHE , relatively new kids on the block? AFFINITY BLUE , and out of Canberra,? CBR Cyber ?whose trajectory is incredible. Any one of these would be worthy winners, but this year, for a whopping 160% YoY growth, some large-scale strategic deals as well as key partnership resourcing, the award goes to? blueAPACHE !

The?Gold Partner of the Year?is a stacked category with 15 Gold partners on our books. If Silvers are the heartbeat, then Golds are the engine room of Aruba and some of our most fiercely loyal partners. We love these partners! With education being a stronghold for Aruba, it's no surprise the nominees excel in that space. We had Sydney-based? Accucom Systems Integration , Melbourne-based? Honeylight Consulting Pty Ltd , and Brisbane-based? Datacom ?round out the finalists. The winner this year was a giant in our gold category, topping the numbers with 60% YoY growth, by far their best year ever and the best in our history for a Gold partner. Outside of the numbers, we had big wins all across the country, and also the launch of a grad program with Aruba, something we're both really proud of. The winner this year,? Datacom .

With HPE betting big on being the Edge-to-Cloud Platform-as-a-Service company for the future and Aruba playing a crucial role in this, our?Greenlake for Aruba Partner of the Year?award is an important one for the business. We've started to see some very positive signs from customers and partners embracing Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), especially our three nominated partners in? NTT ,? Optus Enterprise and Business ?and? Data#3 . The winner has participated in multiple global pilots for Aruba, won our first customer in Australia, and jointly invested in a long-term plan to succeed with Aruba in the new?NaaS?market. The partnership with this company has been incredible around GreenLake, and we're so excited to see where it goes. Congratulations, for the 2nd year in a row, to? Data#3 .

?? Drumroll please...?? Time for our?Platinum Partner of the Year?award - If Golds are the engine room, then?Platinums?are the needle shifters. These partners have truly helped us steal market share from our competitors, and that's what we live for. We have? NTT ,? Optus Enterprise and Business ?and? Matrix CNI ?-?each of them having magnificent years. We love the winner because like Aruba they're a challenger in the market. The mentality and hunger that drives are critical. This partner is the most trained and certified across our community. They've embraced our new offerings like GreenLake and SD-WAN, winning some of the largest deals in those respective technologies. They've grown in states previously not as strong on Aruba. They've won net new business with us, innovated with us, laughed with us, fought with us, competed with us, and partied with us. They've doubled their business from FY21 - which was a great year in itself. 100% YoY growth. HUGE congratulations to? Optus Enterprise and Business .

Thanks to everyone who made the evening special. Such a great vibe amongst our channel family. Cheers to a cracking FY23, onwards and upwards we go! ??

Check out the full photo gallery of the night here. Photo credit goes to Emanuel Colompar of George John Photography?