Aruba Mobile First Platform Provides Real-Time Insights to Improve User Experiences and IoT Security; New Partner Ready for Networking Program Expands Revenue Opportunities for the Channel
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE:HPE), today announced
the Aruba
Mobile First Platform, a software layer that uses application
programming interfaces (APIs) to provide third-party developers and
business leaders with network insights to improve applications and
services. The platform accelerates integration and innovation of mobile
and IoT at the speed of the developer ecosystem, rather than the pace of
a single vendor.
To support today’s mobile first and rapidly developing IoT environment,
networks must deliver more than connectivity. The days of
one-dimensional networks designed for static functions are over. Modern
networks must be able to easily adapt to new application requirements
on-demand. With actionable insights about the use of specific mobile
apps and the operational technologies powered by IoT, networks can help
organizations justify future digital technology investments.
The Aruba Mobile First Platform unlocks the ability for an ecosystem
of developers and technology vendors to freely innovate, utilizing
the rich contextual information the Aruba infrastructure collects from
mobile and IoT devices, and customize networking functions dynamically
in real-time. As a result, customers can improve existing applications
and create new ones to enhance the customer experience, improve business
operations, and drive new revenue opportunities.
Advanced Network Controls and Policy Enforcement for Pervasive
Mobility
The foundation of the Aruba Mobile First Platform is built on ArubaOS
8, a new operating system that allows developers to leverage
contextual information from the infrastructure via its northbound API.
Deployed as a virtual machine (VM) on a server appliance, ArubaOS 8
significantly simplifies changes within the infrastructure and enables
customers to instantly scale their networks.
ArubaOS 8 also enables greater programmability in the Aruba
infrastructure with the ability to upload custom app signatures in
real-time. Developers and ecosystem partners can easily enable policy
management and quality control for new, business critical applications
without network upgrades or downtime.
Ecosystem partner, Skyfii,
harnesses the power of the Aruba Mobile First Platform to help
businesses analyze and visualize customer behavior data. Leveraging
contextual data about users, devices, applications and location from the
Aruba Analytics and Location Engine (ALE), Skyfii gives retailers a
better understanding of behavior and lets them engage shoppers with
targeted advertising and marketing calls to actions.
Increased Network and Application Access Control for Mobile and IoT
The latest enhancements to Aruba ClearPass software as part of the
Mobile First Platform deliver deeper insights into all connected devices
and improve capabilities for third party integration.
The new ClearPass
Extensions make it easier for IT security professionals and
developers to integrate cloud-hosted technology services with Aruba
ClearPass. Without major code changes to the base ClearPass software,
ecosystem partners simply place their software into a repository that
can be leveraged via an API. This allows customers to easily and quickly
create automated workflows.
In the case of McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), Intel Security’s
unified management platform, users can check the status of a device.
McAfee ePO also provides unified management of endpoint, network and
data security. With end-to-end visibility and powerful automation tools,
McAfee ePO dramatically strengthens protection and drives down the cost
and complexity of managing risk and security.
“ClearPass Extensions and the Aruba Mobile First Platform provide a
simplified, open model for us to rapidly integrate and extend our
offering,” said D.J. Long, Head of Intel Security Innovation Alliance.
“The McAfee ePO integration with ClearPass provides customers unified
visibility of security posture regardless of network, device type or
user location, and automates access policy to safeguard enterprise
networks.”
To automate access to Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) attributes
from the cloud, the Microsoft Intune integration via ClearPass
Extensions enables greater control for organizations that want to
provide employees with secure access to corporate applications, data,
and resources on almost any device. The Intune integration with Aruba
will be available in Q4 CY2016.
“Delivered from the cloud and designed to address the needs of today’s
mobile-first cloud-first world, Microsoft Intune delivers a
comprehensive set of mobile device management and mobile application
management capabilities that help you manage your diverse mobile
environment in a secure and unified way” said Andrew Conway, General
Manager of Product Marketing for Microsoft Enterprise Mobility +
Security. “Our integration with Aruba ClearPass will allow you to make
sure only managed and compliant devices are able to connect to your
corporate network.”
Opening the doors to a wide variety of use cases, technology partners
like Kasada
can be integrated easily for multi-factor authentication (MFA)
workflows. Envoy and Sine
are examples of partners that automate a guest Wi-Fi access request
through ClearPass, via their visitor registration services. Customers
can leverage existing solutions, improve user experience and quickly
utilize automation to offload IT resources.
The new ClearPass
OnConnect is ideal for customers who are not ready to deploy 802.1X
and RADIUS across their multivendor wired networks for IoT connectivity.
Policy management for such environments can still be enabled, where all
devices are profiled and placed into proper network segments, without
extensive IT operational investment.
Improved User Experience and Business Insights for Indoor Location
Services
The Aruba Mobile First Platform introduces advanced Bluetooth Low Energy
(BLE) analytics capabilities to the Meridian
Mobile App Platform that go beyond simple monitoring of dwell times
at a specific location. The new Meridian Goals leverages insights
gathered via BLE to inform marketing and business development teams
about the success or failure of their latest engagement campaigns,
eliminating the need to sort through varied, detailed reports to
determine the results of an engagement program.
With the latest release of Meridian, businesses can now enable location
sharing among visitors at venues or employees at work. Individuals
running the same mobile app on their phones can share their physical
location with colleagues and friends while retaining complete control of
their privacy. These new features heighten the user experience and fuel
business intelligence regarding collaboration in the workplace and
customer behavior within public venues.
Delivering Cloud Networking to Distributed Enterprises
Addressing the demands for highly customizable cloud networking
solutions, Aruba has made significant advancements to its
subscription-based, cloud-hosted network services solution, Aruba
Central. With its multi-tenant architecture and the new managed
services portal, Aruba Central allows resellers to rapidly create
custom-branded managed services, deliver value-added services to
existing customers and tap into new opportunities. Existing customers
and partners can now easily add Aruba Central to their portfolio by
integrating it with their existing systems through APIs.
Additionally, Aruba Central now includes enterprise-grade capabilities
such as Aruba Clarity for predictive visibility into Wi-Fi health and
Wi-Fi analytics for visibility into mobile user presence across
different physical spaces. The new Aruba Central mobile app allows IT
staff to deploy Wi-Fi, wired and WAN routing infrastructure components
with zero touch.
Maximize Revenue with the Partner Ready for Networking Program
Taking advantage of the Aruba Mobile First Platform and positioning
partners to be highly competitive in the rapidly changing mobility
networking market, Aruba is introducing the Partner
Ready for Networking program. This new channel program takes the
best elements of the Aruba PartnerEdge and HPE Partner Ready programs to
create a new program that enables partners to capitalize on the
burgeoning enterprise mobility market opportunity.
The new Partner Ready for Networking program delivers predictable
profitability via deal protection and a simple structure that makes it
easy to calculate deal profitability at the front- and back-end. Channel
partners benefit from expanded revenue opportunities as they are
rewarded for specializations in cross-selling and up-selling both
wireless and wired solutions. Partners also have the opportunity to
increase margins for expertise in recognized mobility competencies and
the program offers enriched back-end incentives for specialized
networking expertise. The ability to sell extensive services, including
managed services such as Aruba Central, will further enhance partner
margins and enable them to attain trusted advisor status with their
customers.
The ability for partners to move quickly and be responsive to their
customers drove one of the core principles of the new program – to
simplify and make it easier to do business. The Partner Ready for
Networking Program offers a dedicated partner portal, streamlined
one-page deal registration with simplified approval process, easy to
understand program requirements with a single point of contact, and
planned marketing development fund and lead generation tools and
services.
With the new Partner Ready for Networking program, partners will
significantly improve their competitive position while maximizing their
revenue opportunities with a more predictable revenue stream.
Customer Quotes
The Thames Valley District School Board is one of the largest public
school boards in Ontario, Canada covering 200 kilometers and serving
74,000 students.
“The ease of network deployment and added visibility provided by Aruba
Central is ideal for our District,” said Stephen Young, Manager,
Information Technology Services, Thames Valley District School Board.
“By extending network management capabilities with a mobile app and
managed services options, and additional visibility via the AppRF
dashboard, we not only gain valuable insights into network behavior, but
also flexibility and control for our local technicians. These new tools
will be extremely helpful given we have 160 schools and a lean IT staff.”
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is one of the nation’s first
engineering and technology universities. Located in the heart of New
England, WPI has 14 academic departments offering more than 50
undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
“As a leading technological university, we are continuously evaluating
ways to optimize and upgrade our network without disruption to our
students, faculty and staff,” said Sean O’Connor, Chief Information
Security Officer and Assistant CIO, WPI. “ArubaOS 8 and the Aruba Mobile
First Platform allow us to centrally manage and push network
configurations without the need for new hardware appliances. As we roll
out the new operating system across the university, we look forward to
its advanced scalability and virtualization features that will provide
much needed flexibility for our environment.”
Technology Ecosystem Partners Quotes
Businesses globally are using Envoy’s visitor registration system to
provide a seamless, digital visitor sign-in experience in the workplace.
“To make Envoy even better, our customers have been asking for an easy
way to provide Wi-Fi access to visitors at the time of registration,”
said Larry Gadea, CEO of Envoy. “By integrating our solution with
Aruba’s ClearPass Extensions framework, we have created a unique,
one-step process that makes visitor registration and Wi-Fi access
hassle-free."
Software security company, Kasada leads a new paradigm in enterprise
digital security by augmenting multifactor authentication (MFA) using
and eliminating the need for tokens and passwords.
“Combining the Kasada photograph-centric, cloud-based MFA platform with
simplified integration via Aruba’s ClearPass Extensions enables
enterprise MFA to provide additional automated digital security
solutions based on custom factors such as time or suspicious behaviors,”
said Sam Crowther, CTO and co-founder of Kasada. “Together we are
essentially replacing weak passwords with an easier, more secure
solution.”
Intelligent visitor and contractor registration software company, Sine,
has thousands of customers worldwide.
“Using Aruba’s ClearPass Extensions to integrate, we are now able to
streamline check-in and Wi-Fi registration functions into a single,
seamless process which saves enterprises time and results in faster
productivity for end users,” said Antony Ceravolo, CEO and Founder of
Sine. “We’ve also added a mobile app option which simplifies and
expedites the process even more for frequent visitors.”
Skyfii is a data-driven marketing software company pioneering guest WiFi
and analytics tools. Powered by a unique technology and commercial
solution, Skyfii provides a sophisticated data platform that enables
organizations to map consumer and visitor interest, turning WiFi into a
smart analytics and marketing opportunity to attract, engage and
understand customers better.
“Integrating Skyfii’s IO platform with ClearPass Extensions enables
businesses to combine network access authentication and customer
analytics into a single, uniform and adaptable process,” said Charlie
Clemmer, Senior Director for Skyfii. “By combining the custom branding
developed within the ClearPass portal and capitalizing on the valuable
information ClearPass already collects, customers can turn big data into
smart data without the impractical chore of building custom Skyfii
integrations for ClearPass.”
Channel Partner Quotes
Comm Solutions Company is an end-to-end technology and security
solutions provider, specializing in the design, development, deployment,
and support of enterprise-level solutions.
“We see a number of interesting elements with Aruba’s new partner
program and software innovations,” said Bill Buckalew, COO, Comm
Solutions Company. “We’re most excited about the ability to expedite and
streamline business processes with the new single system. Additionally,
the new business opportunities that come with the added capabilities in
Aruba Central, including the mobile app and managed service provider
offering, will not only allow us to better support our customers’ shift
to mobile and cloud, but also provide us with recurring revenue options.”
As a leading information technology consultancy and systems integrator,
Structured Communication Systems, Inc. has partnered with hundreds of
clients throughout the U.S. to maximize the value of IT.
“Aruba’s Partner Ready for Networking program, coupled with the Aruba
Mobile First Platform and new managed service offerings, allow us to
create recurring revenue streams and drive measurable improvements for
our customers,” said Bill Tracy, Director of Solution Architecture,
Structured Communication Systems, Inc. “The rate at which Aruba
continues to innovate while improving the ease of doing business
continues to separate them from the competition.”
Availability
The Aruba Mobile First Platform and the associated enhancements to
ArubaOS, Aruba Central, Aruba ClearPass and Aruba Meridian are available
in the fourth quarter calendar year 2016.
Additional Resources
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of
next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes
worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations
to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on
cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal
lives.
To learn more, visit Aruba at
http://www.arubanetworks.com
.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook,
and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products
visit Airheads Social at
http://community.arubanetworks.com
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All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their
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Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Pavel Radda, +1-408-419-0294
Senior Director of Corporate Communications
pavel.radda@hpe.com
or
LSH Communications for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Lori Hultin, Principal, +1-818-879-4651
lori.hultin@hpe.com