Aruba Delivers Industry’s First End-to-End, Services-Rich Switching Portfolio Spanning Enterprise Campus, Branch and Data Center

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New CX Series Switches with Cloud-Native Operating System Integrate Closed-Loop Automation and Analytics to Simplify the Operator Experience

 

HONG KONG, CHINA – Media OutReach – January 14, 2020 – Aruba, a Hewlett
Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that it is changing
the rules of networking
with the introduction of switching and software innovations
designed to address the unique needs of today’s modern enterprise campus,
branch and data center. The Aruba
CX Switching Portfolio
now includes the Aruba CX 6300 Series fixed configuration and CX 6400
Series modular access, aggregation and core switches, while delivering the
latest advancements in the AOS-CX operating system. This gives network
operators one simple, end-to-end switching platform to dramatically improve
business outcomes today and into the future.

 

Aruba is the first company
to offer a single switching platform that runs on a modern network operating
system — AOS-CX — from the enterprise edge to the core
to the data center. This unique, cloud-native platform is further optimized by
Aruba’s powerful Network
Analytics Engine (NAE)
, which utilizes embedded analytics and automation to simplify
management, accelerate troubleshooting of application performance issues and
remediate common network problems. 

 

Gartner states, “As update
speed increases, it is no longer viable to manually plan for and deploy tens,
hundreds or thousands of network changes each time an application change
occurs. Making these changes manually is not only impractical, but is likely to
result in significant errors.”[i]
Manual processes can significantly hinder an organization’s ability to move
quickly, innovate and thrive in a competitive marketplace. Moreover, many of
these hurdles can be overcome with a cloud-native infrastructure. According to
Gartner, a “cloud-native infrastructure exhibits the following characteristics:
 

  •  Modularity – It provides abstractions for independent
    packaging of services (such as containers or serverless functions).
  • Programmability – It supports provisioning and management
    via declarative APIs and policies.
  • Elasticity – Resources can be scaled up and down
    dynamically in an automated and policy-driven manner using orchestrators.
  • Resiliency – Services are loosely coupled units that
    are independent and fault-tolerant.[ii]

 

One
OS. One ASIC Architecture. One Operating Model.

Stemming from the
breakthrough innovation and success of its CX 8400 Series core switches running the AOS-CX operating
system — as evidenced by significant
momentum with winning new core customers
— Aruba is addressing these challenges with a
modern switching portfolio that delivers a single operating model from the
enterprise campus and branch access layer to the data center, greatly
simplifying network operations. The new platforms in the Aruba CX Switching Portfolio incorporate the
key elements of a modern networking infrastructure and include:

  • Aruba CX 6300 and CX 6400 Series switches featuring
    Aruba’s 7th Generation ASIC architecture
    : The Aruba CX 6300 Series is a family of stackable switches
    that offers flexible growth via a 10-member virtual switching framework (VSF) and
    provides built-in 10/25/50 gigabit uplinks to meet the bandwidth needs of today
    and the future. The Aruba CX 6400 Series modular switches offer both
    a 5-slot chassis and a
    10-slot chassis with a non-blocking fabric that scales from Gigabit POE access
    to 100G core, allowing customers to standardize on one platform across the
    enterprise, including hybrid use cases.
  • AOS-CX 10.4: The new version
    of AOS-CX introduces rich access features to the OS while extending CX
    differentiators to the access layer of the network. These include Aruba Dynamic Segmentation to provide secure,
    unified policy across wired and wireless down to every user and IoT device,
    Ethernet VPN (EVPN) over VxLAN for simplified and secure connectivity from enterprises
    to data centers, and Virtual Switching Extension (VSX) live upgrades for no
    downtime during maintenance cycles.
  • Aruba NetEdit 2.0 with Network Analytics Engine
    (NAE)
    : The significantly enhanced version of Aruba’s NetEdit software now
    integrates with Aruba’s NAE. This advancement enables centralized
    visualization of network health leveraging NAE distributed analytics across
    every switch in the network to reduce troubleshooting cycles from days to
    minutes. New automation capabilities simplify common tasks such as implementing
    configuration changes or initial system set-up which can now be completed via
    the CX Mobile app.

 

“AI-powered automation must
be at the heart of a modern, edge-to-cloud architecture,” said Kenneth Ma, director and general manager of Hong Kong and Macau at
Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company
. “We believe that AI is the key to analyzing data,
providing actionable insights, and automation at scale to optimize network
operators’ ability to quickly troubleshoot, remediate and proactively resolve
some of IT’s most pressing challenges. We are thrilled to introduce this
valuable new solution to enterprise customers across Hong Kong and Macau. This
innovative solution will help customer focus on their business mission and
avoid wasting time on their bottlenecks.”

 

Supporting Quotes

“The new Aruba CX Switching Portfolio comes
to market as demands on the enterprise network continue to increase, with more
users, devices and things requiring higher speeds and lower latencies.
Enterprises are looking for powerful platforms with simplified operations to
keep up with the current and future needs of the business. Aruba’s CX switching
portfolio allows customers to use a single platform for Ethernet switching from
the datacenter to the access layer, providing a consistent, cloud-native OS,
helping enterprises achieve easier management, more consistent operator
experience and higher levels of quality assurance.”

Brandon
Butler, senior research analyst, Network Infrastructure at IDC

 

“I believe Aruba’s new CX
switching portfolio holds tremendous promise, especially for modern healthcare
organizations where so many aspects of improving patient care involve the
network, such as connected medical devices and transmission of electronic
patient data. Seattle Children’s selected Aruba technology for its research
facility, Building Cure, based on the AOS-CX operating system and its ability
to deliver non-stop networking that’s future-proof.”

Dr. Zafar Chaudry, senior
vice president and chief information officer at Seattle Children’s


Availability

The
CX Switching Portfolio, including the Aruba CX 6300 and CX 6400 Series switches,
the new version of AOS-CX and Aruba NetEdit 2.0 are available now.

 

Additional Resources


[i] Gartner, NetOps 2.0: Embrace Network
Automation and Analytics to Win in the Era of ContinuousNext, October 2019

[ii] Gartner, Top
Emerging Trends in Cloud Native Infrastructure, May 2019

About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider
of secure, intelligent networks that enable customers to thrive and deliver
amazing digital experiences in the mobile, IoT and cloud era. We are changing
the rules of networking to make it simple for IT and organizations to bridge
the physical and digital worlds at the Edge.

 

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
the Airheads Community at http://community.arubanetworks.com.