[April 10, 2012]

Brandeis University Replaces Cisco and Juniper Access Switches with Aruba S3500s Mobility Switches to Unify Wired and Wireless Access Networks

Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) today announced that Brandeis University is in the process of a campus-wide replacement of Juniper and Cisco (News - Alert) access switches with Aruba S3500 Mobility Switches. Brandeis made this decision after rigorous head-to-head testing and production network use of each.

In addition to benefitting from Aruba's network switch and router, Brandeis intends to use the Aruba Mobility Access Switch together with their existing wireless controllers to transform their edge into a single continuous access layer.

"The S3500's tight integration with the Aruba Mobility Controller extends the context-awareness that we have with the Aruba WLAN, including knowledge of user, device, application and location, to our wired network," said John W. Turner, director for networks and systems, Brandeis University. "It is a completely new development in access networking. Yes, the S3500 is a reasonably-priced POE switch, but I believe the real magic of the S3500 series is the ability it gives us to create and maintain a full community of edge users, regardless of whether they are wired or wireless."

Through its testing lab, Brandeis independently validated the performance and reliability of the S3500, putting the switch through its paces in all aspects of design.

"We needed to validate the S3500 in our own environment," says Turner. "We wanted to make sure the switch could handle everything that exists on a busy campus network. If the S3500 wasn't a reliable switch, wasn't a reliable router, it wouldn't be here on campus."

Brandeis' use of the Aruba AirWave (News - Alert) Management System in combination with the S3500s and its campus-wide Aruba WLAN is designed to provide comprehensive visibility into and control of both wired and wireless network resources. Prior to the S3500 deployment, Brandeis IT could only identify users on the wired network by MAC address. They can now identify individual users on the wired network, along with their roles, devices and applications, using the Aruba Mobility Switch to apply the appropriate access policies just as it does on the Aruba WLAN. In addition, the S3500 Mobility Switches supply Power over Ethernet (PoE) to all access points (APs) with approximately 30 percent less powerdraw than what Brandeis experienced with its Cisco and Juniper switches.

Brandeis began using Aruba in early 2005, replacing its then-Cisco wireless network with an Aruba WLAN. The university has since greatly expanded the WLAN, completely eliminating wired access in its residence halls in 2011. The university has approximately 100 buildings and 7,000 users that connect to that network every day, many with three or more mobile devices.

As part of his vision to unite the growing community of mobile devices, Turner worked directly with Aruba executives and through the Aruba AirHeads Community to champion the development of the Aruba AirGroup product. AirGroup identifies access network users' individual roles and their locations to make plug-and-play network services like Apple's (News - Alert) AirPrint and AirPlay available to their mobile devices across wired and wireless enterprise networks. See the associated announcement here: http://www.arubanetworks.com/news-releases/airgroup-release/

"Working with progressive customers like Brandeis is truly a pleasure, in that it makes us think hard and innovate quickly," said Keerti Melkote, chief strategic officer for Aruba. "Brandeis is more than just a customer, it's a collaborator. The things that John and his team push us to do solve real-world problems for Brandeis and for others."

For more information on the innovative mobile access network deployment at Brandeis, see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atb2xYO0n8U&list=UUBqljIC71OlVqXxtEbE43vg&index=2&feature=plpp_video

About Aruba Networks (News - Alert), Inc.

Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company's Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) architecture unifies wired and wireless network infrastructures into one seamless access solution for corporate headquarters, mobile business professionals, remote workers and guests. This unified approach to access networks dramatically improves productivity and lowers capital and operational costs.

Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook.

© 2012 Aruba Networks, Inc. Aruba Networks' trademarks include the design mark for AirWave, Aruba Networks^®, Aruba Wireless Networks^®, the registered Aruba the Mobile Edge (News - Alert) Company logo, the registered AirWave logo, Aruba Mobility Management System^®, Mobile Edge Architecture^®, People Move. Networks Must Follow^®, RFProtect^®, Green Island^®. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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