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Aruba Networks Takes Enterprise Wi-Fi Scalability to New Levels With Innovative Mobility Controller EnhancementsSUNNYVALE, Calif., June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Aruba Networks, the Mobile Edge Company, today released major enhancements to its enterprise WLAN system that extends scalability to ten times that of competitive solutions. The new enhancements, available this month in a new version of its ArubaOS Mobility Software, make Aruba's mobility controller the most scalable enterprise wireless system on the market. A single Aruba WLAN system is now capable of supporting up to 1000 simultaneous 802.1X authentication transactions per second. As the use of Wi-Fi networking within corporations becomes pervasive, user counts are constantly on the rise leading to scalability and performance issues. Device counts are increasing even faster with the proliferation of personal handheld devices that come equipped with Wi-Fi. These new wireless devices and the employees using them must be quickly and securely connected wherever they are to ensure the best user experience. Aruba's new mobility software increases enterprise WLAN scalability by delivering major new enhancements which include: -- AAA FastConnect(TM), a new capability supported on all mobility controllers delivers user connection rates ten times faster than competitive alternatives. This enables consistently fast connect times and ensures easier integration with existing back-end AAA services with increased resilience of WLAN connections to ensure high uptimes. -- VLAN Pooling(TM) for flexible, non-disruptive design and provisioning of campus WLANs -- Self-configuring mobility controllers for zero-touch branch WLAN provisioning -- Scalable, centralized management for thousands of distributed branch WLANs -- Affordable, secure WLANs for telecommuters and nomadic remote offices Aruba's Mobile Edge architecture represents a new approach to evolving enterprise networks from fixed, port-based designs to support for secure, identity-based mobility. In addition to enabling user mobility on the campus, the Mobile Edge architecture delivers the same user experience to workers in branch offices, home offices and other nomadic office locations by creating a secure overlay that spans the LAN, the WAN and the Internet. Enterprises Flock to New Features "We selected Aruba for our campus WLAN deployment after a comprehensive evaluation of all the leading vendors in the market," said Tom Seto, director of IT for the University of Calgary. "Aruba's unique capabilities for large WLANs enabled us to deploy our campus-wide network in a matter of days and allow us to keep it operating with a minimal amount of fuss. These new capabilities deliver a very real ROI, saving us considerable time and money that we would have otherwise spent on reconfiguring and upgrading our wired networks." "As an industry leader, it is essential that we remain current with cutting edge solutions that enable us to maintain our differentiation and exceed the needs of all of our stakeholders. In particular, we have a critical responsibility to leverage technological advances for the benefit of our patients, and we are continuously developing new solutions to meet their needs" said Kurt Littlefield, Vice President of I.T. for Fresenius Healthcare, the global leader in delivering dialysis services and products. "Because of our depth and experience, we can and are thrilled to take on the delivery of wireless technology to more than 1,600 facilities within North America that deliver critical services and products to our patients," said David Dube, Senior Manager of Network Security for Fresenius Healthcare. "Aruba's integrated security capabilities, such as the stateful firewall and wireless intrusion prevention, along with its architectural ability to scale to large deployments, made it the obvious choice for our wireless LAN solution." "As one of the largest privately-held companies in the building industry, we are constantly setting up and tearing down networks at our construction sites," sand Lance Osojnicki, chief technology officer of Gilbane Building Company. "We were looking for a solution that economically delivered the ability to access our corporate resources from these construction sites. Aruba's Remote AP is the only solution that allowed us to create a secure corporate network environment without needing any IT expertise at our building project sites." AAA FastConnect(TM) for Faster, Easier, More Resilient and Secure WLAN Connections AAA services are fast becoming a mandatory requirement for secure Wi-Fi. However, as user density increases during peak times, slow connection rates, dropped connections and inconsistent roaming response times become significant scaling challenges. Aruba's new AAA FastConnect, a fundamental advance in scaling AAA services, accelerates encrypted EAP protocols in hardware to enable consistently fast connect times and also makes it easier for IT administrators to integrate with existing back-end AAA services by directly interfacing with any RADIUS or LDAP server without requiring any changes to their configuration. VLAN Pooling(TM) for Flexible, Non-disruptive Network Designs for Dense Campus WLANs Wireless users often congregate in conference rooms, classrooms and other common areas, leading to unbalanced network loading and disruptive network reconfigurations due to the limitations of traditional fixed VLAN designs when applied to mobile networks. Aruba's VLAN Pooling dynamically assigns VLAN membership to mobile users across a pool of centrally configured VLANs, eliminating the challenges of shifting network user loads. Self-configuring Mobility Controllers, Scalable Central Management for Branch WLANs Aruba mobility controllers can now be centrally provisioned and drop shipped to a branch location for plug-and-play operation. As the number of branch office WLANs increases, a scalable centralized management system becomes imperative to reduce operational costs. With the new ArubaOS software, a single master mobility controller can now manage up to 700 distributed controllers, up from the previous limit of 64, and a cluster of master mobility controllers can be managed from the Aruba Mobility Management System, delivering unprecedented scalability for distributed mobile enterprises. Affordable Scaling for Telecommuter Wireless LANs Telecommuter wireless LAN deployments have depended on either difficult- to-manage, stand-alone enterprise access points or completely unmanaged, highly vulnerable consumer access points. Aruba's unique Remote AP capability provides telecommuters with access to their corporate VoIP and data resources over a seamless, secure corporate wireless connection. With this release, Aruba is introducing several new licenses making large-scale Remote AP deployments more cost-effective. The new software licenses are built around a tiered structure going up to 256 Remote AP licenses on a single mobility controller. Pricing and Availability Aruba's latest version of ArubaOS is available now, works with all Aruba mobility controllers and access points, and is provided at no additional charge as an upgrade for existing customers with support. Remote AP licenses are available at different pricing tiers. Please contact an Aruba reseller or sales representative for detailed information. About Aruba Networks Aruba Networks is a fast-growing enterprise infrastructure company enabling the Mobile Edge, an evolutionary network architecture that represents a new approach to transitioning enterprise networks from a fixed, port-based architecture to an architecture centered on secure, identity-based mobility. The Mobile Edge simultaneously delivers mobile data and VOIP services, as well as a common user experience to mobile workers in the office, at home and on the road, by creating a secure mobility overlay that spans the LAN, the WAN and the Internet. To deliver the Mobile Edge, Aruba manufactures and markets a complete line of fixed and modular mobility controllers, wired and wireless access points, an advanced mobility software suite, and a mobility management system. Privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California, Aruba has operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and employs staff around the world. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com/. Aruba Networks and Aruba The Mobile Edge Company are trademarks of Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Aruba Networks CONTACT: Don Reckles of Aruba Networks, Inc., +1-408-329-5108,[email protected]; Jay Nichols of Sterling Communications for Aruba,+1-415-392-2300, [email protected] Web site: http://www.arubanetworks.com/ |