Three things I expect to see at HPE Discover Barcelona 2025 (and two I don’t)

HPE Discover Barcelona 2025 – Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s annual European conference – is fast approaching. CEO Antonio Neri is set to take to the stage at 10am CET on 3 December to deliver his opening keynote, where delegates can expect to hear the latest news and updates from the company.

In anticipation of the start of the show, here are three things I expect to see at the Fira Barcelona – and two I don’t.

Juniper Networks joins HPE

Confidence: high

There’s little doubt in my mind that HPE had hoped to finally celebrate the completion of its acquisition of Juniper Networks at HPE Discover Las Vegas in June. Unfortunately for the companies, the deal was only finally sealed on 2 July.

For this reason, I am as certain as I can be that the acquisition of Juniper and how it’s being integrated into HPE’s existing stable of products will be on the agenda. I also expect to hear more about how Juniper’s channel program and partners are being integrated into HPE Partner Ready.

What we may not hear too much more about is the future of Aruba – recently repackaged as Aruba Central – and Mist. There has been speculation among customers that the acquisition of Juniper will spell the end of Aruba, but it’s a little early in the process for something as dramatic as that to be announced, in my opinion.

HPE’s latest AI play

Confidence: high

There’s no getting away from AI in business (or anywhere else) and I don’t expect HPE Discover Barcelona 2025 to be any different. In fact, when the acquisition of Juniper Networks finally closed, AI was all over HPE’s accompanying statement.

If that’s not enough, consider that at Discover Las Vegas 2024, Neri declared HPE to be the “edge-to-cloud-to-AI” company. He also had Nvidia’s Jensen Huang join him on stage for the announcement of their joint AI initiative, starting with Nvidia AI computing by HPE.

I expect to hear more on how initiatives like AI factories and other partnerships are coming along, but probably no big AI product or strategy announcements this time.

New products from HPE

Confidence: medium

While major product announcements are normally made at HPE Discover Las Vegas in summer, that doesn’t mean there will be nothing of note for delegates at HPE Discover Barcelona 2025. Unlike some US tech companies (naming no names), HPE doesn’t normally just rehash what was announced six months ago, so I expect at least one or two product reveals this coming week.

Last year, CEO Antonio Neri announced HPE Alletra Storage MP Disconnected and HPE Private Cloud Enterprise Disconnected. If I were a betting woman, my money would be on iterations of products announced in June, particularly agentic AI and hybrid cloud.

Guest star appearances and new flagship projects

Confidence: very low

Never say never, but the likelihood of appearances from high-profile guests such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang or the launch of a new mega-project like a national supercomputer are close to zero.

It’s been mere weeks since the most recent – and extensive – announcements from HPE of their new HPC plans in the USA. While the frequency of supercomputer announcements is definitely increasing, to have more than three in the space of two months would seem excessive.

For guest stars, in person appearances are, in my experience, simply less common at European events than US ones. I wouldn’t rule out a pre-recorded video, however.

I will be on site reporting live from HPE Discover Barcelona 2025 from 3-4 December, so stay tuned for all the latest news and exclusive insights throughout the week.