5 Must-See Aruba Networking Products Unveiled At HPE Discover

Aruba Takes Center Stage At HPE Discover

Aruba Networks launched a slew of products at HPE Discover in Las Vegas on Monday including its first core switch, a new ArubaOS software and an asset tracking solution integrated into Aruba's wireless infrastructure.

"It's exciting and encouraging to see Aruba constantly innovating and that's what we're absolutely seeing here," said Al Chien, chief sales officer of Dasher Technologies, a Campbell, Calif.-based HPE Platinum and Aruba partner. "You see some manufacturers who once they release an initial or second wave of a product, they stand pat – that's not the case with Aruba."

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based networking vendor was acquired by HP in 2015 for $3 billion. Here are the five biggest networking products launched today at HPE Discover.

Aruba 8400 Core Switch

Aruba revealed its first-ever core enterprise switching line, the Aruba 8400 Core Switch Series.

"We see it primarily going after the [Cisco] Catalyst 6000, most of the customers are using that for their core," said Christian Gilby, director of Aruba's product marketing. "This is really about taking that mobile-first architecture into the core of the network. Customers and partners want to be able to deploy an end-to-end Aruba architecture and now they can."

The 8400 switches are fully programmable with a built-in Python interpreter and REST-based APIs for every function. Aruba said the solution enables easy integration and ongoing flexibility with infrastructure and applications, including the Aruba Mobile First Platform for end-to-end network monitoring, detection, troubleshooting, and closed-loop remediation of network performance or security-related issues.

ArubaOS-CX Software

Tied to the new 8400 switching line is the company's new ArubaOS-CX software, aimed at simplifying and automating critical and complex network tasks.

"When we designed this [8400] switch, the focus is API-first. Everything available in the switch is all available through APIs both of our own software components for management security, but also third party systems. We built it from the ground up so that it complies in APIs for all of the interfaces on the switch," said Aruba's Gilby.

The new software offers more visibility and remediation for troubleshooting, according to Aruba, while also including its Network Analytics Engine that enables IT administrations to monitor the network, systems, applications and security with rules-based monitoring and automatic correlation of network activities.

The 2930M Switch

The company has enhanced the software for its Layer 3 access switch, the Aruba 2930M. The switch series is optimized for wireless LAN and IoT integration with unified security, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and flexibility of on-premises Aruba AirWave or cloud-based Aruba Central management.

New software innovation on the 2930M include policy-based micro-segmentation for unified functionality, policy enforcement between wired and wireless, and supports the new IEEE 802.3bz standard for multi-gigabit Ethernet.

Full Asset Tracking Solution

Aruba's new asset tracking solution includes new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags, an asset tag configuration application, advancements in the ArubaOS software and new features for the Aruba Meridian AppMaker. The solution is fully integrated into the Aruba's wireless infrastructure.

Aruba touts the solution as the first full asset tracking solution being offered from a single networking vendor, which eliminates the need for customers to build a secondary network. The product includes new ArubaOS software that enables Aruba BLE access points and sensors to act as asset tags. Additionally, new features in the Meridian AppMaker include a new SDK and APIs for third-party integration.

Asset Tracking Tags

Asset tracking tags are part of Aruba's new solution. They're slightly larger than the size of a quarter. Each tag is about $40, with a battery life of two years. The tags are designed to meet harsh environmental requirements and come with multiple attachment options.