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| Dondurmacioglu sets the stage for the announcements. |
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, has 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, introduced in the US earlier this month, accelerates integration and innovation of mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) at the speed of the developer ecosystem, rather than the pace of a single vendor.
According to Aruba, 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. At APAC Atmosphere 2016 in Singapore Ozer Dondurmacioglu, Senior Director, Product and Solutions Marketing, Aruba, contrasted the IT environment 10 years ago with the situation today. Legacy infrastructure did not have to evolve very much, with IT refreshes occurring once every three to seven years, he said.
"Technologies were managed by IT. IT decided it all, and the end user experience was not really important," he explained.
Mobility and the Internet of Things have since taken hold at the edge of the network, powered by the cloud. "Now everyone upgrades to a new phone every 18 months, there's a new IoT project or smart city project every year. Networks now being hit with new technology every single day," said Dondurmacioglu. "It is now important to business leaders and end users what technology is being used in the smart work environment. Business leaders care what (solution) their employees need."
The Aruba Mobile First Platform addresses the new reality kby moving Aruba's hardware functionality into software, and then enabling third parties to make use of the software layer to control the network, Dondurmacioglu explained. An ecosystem of developers and technology vendors can now utilise the contextual information the Aruba infrastructure collects from mobile and IoT devices to innovate and customise networking functions in real-time. In practical terms, someone who has bought a new smartphone might have mobile device management software automatically installed on it after authentication, or obtain unique network access privileges for that smartphone alone, without network reconfiguration.
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| The Mobile First Platform is a major milestone. |
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 enable policy management and quality control for new, business critical applications without network upgrades or downtime. "Major features now come as apps," explained Dondurmacioglu. "There is a lot of focus on ease of management, improving the reliability."
Ecosystem partner Skyfii harnesses the power of the Aruba Mobile First Platform to help businesses analyse and visualise customer behaviour data. Leveraging contextual data about Wi-Fi users, devices, applications and location from the Aruba Analytics and Location Engine (ALE), Skyfii gives retailers a better understanding of behaviour and lets them engage shoppers with targeted advertising and marketing calls to actions, customised by location.
Skyfii is a data-driven marketing software company pioneering guest Wi-Fi and analytics tools. Skyfii enables organisations to map consumer and visitor interest, turning Wi-Fi 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 capitalising 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.”
Aruba ClearPass software has been enhanced as part of the Mobile First Platform to 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. Ecosystem partners can place their software into a repository that can be leveraged via an API, without major code changes to the base ClearPass software. 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 leverage ClearPass to check the status of a device. McAfee ePO also provides unified management of endpoint, network and data security. With end-to-end visibility and automation tools, McAfee ePO 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 DJ 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 organisations 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 Q416.
“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, GM 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 different use cases, technology from partners like Australian software security company Kasada can be integrated easily for multifactor authentication (MFA) workflows. Kasada augments MFA with content such as images, eliminating the need for tokens and passwords. "(It's) unique to you, to your device, and you can't spoof it," said Dominic Orr, President, Aruba during the event keynote.
“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 behaviours,” said Sam Crowther, CTO and co-founder of Kasada. “Together we are essentially replacing weak passwords with an easier, more secure solution.”
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 automatically offload IT resources.
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."
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.”
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.
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 time spent 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 programme.
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 behaviour within public venues.
Aruba has also introduced advances to its subscription-based, cloud-hosted network services solution, Aruba Central. With its multitenant 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 add Aruba Central to their portfolio by integrating it with their existing systems through APIs.
Aruba Central additionally 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.
Interested?
The Aruba Mobile First Platform and the associated enhancements to ArubaOS, Aruba Central, Aruba ClearPass and Aruba Meridian are available in Q416.
Watch the Aruba Demo 360 video
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