Federal IT leaders gathered at HPE Discover 2025 to explore secure government networking, featuring HPE's innovations in MACsec encryption, AI-driven solutions, and more.
At HPE Discover 2025, federal leaders, partners, and customers came together to explore the future of secure government networking—from real-world deployments of HPE Aruba Networking Central to game-changing security.
There’s something undeniably energizing about HPE Discover—especially this year. With more than 12,000 global attendees descending on Las Vegas, the event once again delivered innovation, collaboration, and connection at an extraordinary scale. For the federal community, our dedicated session was a highlight of the week, drawing a strong audience of government decision-makers, integrators, and technology partners—despite the perennial scheduling and travel hurdles. The federal session was the second most-attended networking breakout!
I want to personally thank everyone who made time to join us, as well as those who contributed throughout the event. It’s your passion and commitment that make these conversations so valuable—and ultimately drive better operational outcomes for federal IT leaders.
Steady winds, strong gains: Navigating federal growth
At the event, I reflected on what have been strong business trends within federal since the last Discover. Accordingly, the federal space remained steady throughout FY24, and HPE Networking saw sustained growth across all segments throughout the year.
So far in FY25, our Department of Defense customers have led the way, showing increased demand and deeper engagement. This has helped offset some of the short-term challenges other segments have experienced due to changes in priorities, acquisition reforms, and other anticipated transition-related challenges that resulted from the change in administration.
Encouragingly, the business continues to strengthen as we move into the second half of the fiscal year. And just as we wrapped up HPE Discover, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced we had finally reached a settlement with the Department of Justice, paving the way for the long-anticipated acquisition of Juniper Networks. That’s a major milestone, and we are excited about the creation of HPE Networking and our ability to offer an industry-leading and comprehensive full-stack cloud-native, AI-driven portfolio.
Securing the edge: MACsec encryption takes center stage
We’re all acutely aware of today’s evolving cybersecurity challenges, and agencies are facing persistent threats that target data in transit, especially over WAN links to remote sites. Ken Rich, Federal CTO for HPE Aruba Networking, kicked off the technical deep dive with a timely discussion on evolving federal network security requirements.
As federal agencies increasingly rely on remote connectivity, tactical field operations, and hybrid architectures, the need to secure data in motion has never been more urgent. New policy drivers—like Executive Order 14028, Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, the DoD’s Zero Trust Execution Roadmap v1.1, and the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) program—make end-to-end encryption not just a best practice, but a requirement.
Ken introduced the audience to Media Access Control Security (MACsec), an IEEE standard that provides point-to-point security on Ethernet links. Unlike traditional IPSec VPNs, which often introduce latency and complexity, MACsec delivers high-speed, hardware-level encryption with minimal overhead. MACsec can also be used in combination with IPSec or SSL to provide end-to-end network security that protects data in transit.
Now, with MACsec WAN extension for HPE Aruba Networking CX switches, we’re bringing that same level of security to support critical use cases, including:
- Data center interconnects
- Tactical and field deployments
- Classified transport environments
MACsec WAN extension simplifies configuration, maintains high throughput with Advanced Encryption Standard with Galois/Counter Mode (AES-GCM) encryption, and supports FIPS 140-3 and Common Criteria validations—making it a powerful, policy-compliant alternative to IPSec VPNs. For federal IT leaders navigating zero trust mandates and securing high-speed links, this is a technology worth watching closely.
Full-stack networking in action
Matt Gann, System Engineering Manager, HPE, and Sawyer Davis, Consulting Systems Engineer, HPE, showcased how HPE Aruba Networking Edge Services Platform is no longer just a vision—it’s an operational reality across a wide range of federal environments. From agency offices, training facilities, and clinics to tactical deployments, agencies are successfully leveraging HPE Aruba Networking Central, our security-first, AI-powered cloud network management console, to gain full-stack visibility, automation, and control.
We highlighted multiple real-world HPE Aruba Networking Central use cases, including:
- Hybrid government workspaces
- Unification of Wi-Fi, switching, and SD-WAN across distributed sites
- Deployment of our secure, on-prem solutions to meet regulatory and mission requirements
These examples are proof that modern, secure networking is enabling greater mission agility. When HPE Aruba Networking Edge Services Platform is combined with capabilities like end-to-end MACsec encryption, SD-WAN, and private 5G, the result is a secure, high performance network fabric that spans from cloud to edge—that is built for government.
Innovation from end to end
Beyond the federal breakout session, the week was packed with HPE Networking product reveals and platform enhancements. A few standouts that our federal customers should know about include:
- New Wi-Fi 7 access points that boost user and IoT experiences with Wi-Fi 7 and expand network capacity, observability, and security with AI-powered management
- AI-ready network switches with MACsec, so you can modernize and secure your campus and branch switches
- Private 5G solutions to address challenging use cases with a solution that’s easy to deploy and can be managed like Wi-Fi
- GreenLake Intelligence for AI-driven operations
What happens in Vegas shapes the future of networking
While we know that not every customer was able to attend HPE Discover this year, the strength of the federal community was still on full display. The feedback, engagement, and enthusiasm we experienced confirm just how important these conversations are—and how critical it is to continue evolving alongside our customers.
Thank you again to everyone who joined us in Las Vegas. Let’s continue the momentum and keep delivering the secure, high performance networks our government partners need—wherever the mission takes you.
Meet the Author:
John Klopacz, Vice President and General Manager, Federal, HPE Aruba Networking, HPE
linkedin.com/in/john-klopacz-99b26311/
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John Klopacz is Vice President and General Manager, Federal, HPE Aruba Networking. John oversees the HPE Aruba Networking Federal business, including Field Sales, Systems Engineering, Channels, and Field Marketing.