Traditional switches are difficult to match the Internet of Everything, Aruba CX next-generation switching platform is re-installed

[51CTO.com original article] On December 18, 2019, Aruba announced the launch of the Aruba CX next-generation switching platform in China to better meet the unique needs of modern enterprise campuses, branches and data centers. The Aruba CX series was actually developed by Aruba itself and put on the market as early as 2017, but now around the intelligent edge strategy, Aruba has improved this product portfolio, adding new operating system functions, automated network operation and maintenance platforms, and access, aggregation and core switches, providing network operation and management personnel with a simple, end-to-end switching platform, which can significantly improve current and future business results.

From 1.0 to 3.0, Aruba has always insisted on innovation to disrupt the market

Chris Kozup, Aruba's global chief marketing officer, told reporters that Aruba has been committed to leading the market through innovation since 2002. In the first stage of development, Aruba saw the market opportunity of Wi-Fi connection. When the 802.11 standard became popular, Intel took the lead in launching Wi-Fi chips, and Apple also supported Wi-Fi connection in iPad. Under the rapid development trend of the mobile era, Aruba quickly grew into a billion-dollar company.

In the second stage of development, Aruba began to provide customers with more secure wireless networks, providing end-to-end overall solutions to many customers in China, and solving business challenges faced by enterprises in the fields of security and the Internet of Things. Based on the general trend of "mobility is king", Aruba continued to grow into a 3 billion company.

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Chris Kozup, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Aruba

Now, Aruba believes that it is time to disrupt the industry again. 2020 is coming, and a very important opportunity is edge computing. Aruba believes that it can use data intelligence to provide customers with more edge intelligence and empower business. "Nowadays, people, things, and events are all connected. Enterprises need to have the ability to process data and be able to intelligently convert data into the results and business insights that businesses seek." Chris Kozup gave an example. When consumers come to unmanned stores to take goods from the shelves, they do not need to go to the checkout counter to pay. The technology system built through sensors, cameras and network intelligent connections can fully perceive the types and amounts of goods purchased by users, and automatically deduct fees through mobile terminals. All of this happens at the edge, not in the cloud or data center. The same is true in the manufacturing industry. Through network equipment and automation programs, real-time information processing can be achieved instead of waiting for cloud instructions. This ensures that data has a faster processing speed at the edge and can also achieve predictable maintenance of machines. "Aruba believes in the great space of intelligent edge and is more confident that Aruba will become a billion-dollar enterprise."

Chris Kozup predicts that the medical industry, manufacturing industry, and industrial field will be the first to try new technologies around edge computing. They hope to optimize the entire business process through intelligent edge solutions and use data to make better and smarter decisions. Regarding the future evolution roadmap, Chris Kozup believes that Aruba is currently focusing on the two stages of "connectivity" and "security", and will focus on "analysis" and "action" in the future.

More flexible based on cloud native and adaptable to future trends

Robert Haviland, senior director of Aruba Wired Network Technology Marketing Engineering, introduced the Aruba CX switch product launched this time from a more technical perspective. He emphasized that the Aruba CX switch is designed based on the next-generation cloud-native switch, providing a microservice-based, very stable architecture, which also means that it can bring full network programmability and workflow automation to network operation and management personnel, and achieve a deeper interactive relationship between personnel and the network. "Aruba CX brings a unified operating model from the edge to the data center. The distributed analysis function can be pushed all the way to the edge, bringing deep insight and visibility to the entire network, which can help enterprises discover problems in advance and deal with them in a timely manner."

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Robert Haviland, Senior Director of Technical Marketing Engineering, Aruba Wired Networks

The reason for choosing cloud native and microservices is that Aruba does not want enterprises to be fixed in an environment where there is no way to flexibly deploy. Yu Shidan, technical sales director of Aruba China, added that traditional network architecture is often static and fixed, and cannot adapt to the development of future trends. Aruba CX switches are based on cloud native operating systems and new architectures, which can achieve four major features: modularity, elasticity, flexibility, and programmability. They can be flexibly deployed and better support the technical architecture of future application development.

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Yu Shidan, Technical Sales Director of Aruba China

In his speech, Robert Haviland pointed out that Aruba switches have a very special technology called dynamic isolation, which is actually Aruba's extension of its previous wireless capabilities to wired networks. Dynamic isolation technology can be linked with PaaS to identify all connected terminals, including laptops, computers, mobile phones, and various IoT devices. Robert Haviland said, "For various different devices, Aruba has different security policies to isolate and control them, so dynamic isolation technology can help enterprises easily implement dynamic control in the network."

Innovation in details shows R&D strength

During the interview, the reporter found that the new CX combination products launched by Aruba this time are not only more adaptable to the era of the Internet of Everything in terms of network connection, but also very well done in many details. Taking PoE power supply as an example, each port on Aruba's switch can achieve 60W data line power supply, and 48 interfaces can achieve a total power supply of 2880W. For many IoT devices such as lights, TVs, and projectors in smart buildings, from the perspective of cost saving, the deployment of power cables is avoided, and the power supply through data and standard cables can achieve higher power supply and control efficiency.

Yu Shidan believes that smart buildings are just a typical application scenario in campus networks. In the future, more Internet devices will require power and network connections. Ethernet power supply technology can solve these two problems at the same time. In the future, as the number of network access devices increases, Aruba CX switches can ensure that all devices on 48 ports can work normally. Looking at the campus network, its cost-effectiveness can be imagined.

Chris Kozup also told reporters that in data centers that have deployed Aruba solutions, whether it is switches or other network products, the CX combination can integrate the functions of previous generation products. On the one hand, it is forward compatible, ensuring the cost-effectiveness of products for past enterprise users, and on the other hand, it is more compatible with the future. Robert Haviland also said that Aruba has always followed open standards to ensure that new products can comply with protocols and standards.

[51CTO original article, please indicate the original author and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]