Aruba, a subsidiary of HPE, has announced several additions to its Aruba ESP edge services platform, with new features in Aruba Central. Among them is Aruba Central NetConductor, with which companies can centralize the management of distributed networks with native cloud services that are responsible for simplifying the provision of policies, as well as automating network configurations in wired, wireless and WAN infrastructures. All while applying Zero Trust and SASE security policies at the same time.
Aruba has also revealed the first indoor access points (APs) with integrated GPS receiversas well as Open Locate, a new industry standard developed to share location information from an access point to a device.
Central NetConductor uses Artificial Intelligence to manage and optimize. In addition, it implements business-centric workflows to automate network configuration and extend integrated security with cloud-native Network Access Control (NAC) and Dynamic segmentation (DNAC) to harden the fabric.
Adoption of Central NetConductor can be done smoothly, while protecting investments based on the ability to operate with Aruba networks and third-party infrastructure, thanks to its being based on protocols such as EVPN, VXLAN and BGP, which have very wide acceptance.
Aruba Central NetConductor is responsible for accelerating the deployment, management and protection of modern “fabric based” networks with the mapping of capabilities to the three principles of automation, security and agility, to modernize the network. In the field of automation, it favors intent-based workflows with “one button” connectivity and security policy orchestration.
As for this, it generally allows role-based access control, thus expanding dynamic segmentation to apply integrated Zero Trust and SASE security policies. Finally, when it comes to agility, Central NetConductor enables native cloud services for a single point of visibility and control, based on standards. This facilitates migration and adoption, as we have mentioned.
As for the indoor access points with automatic location, they reduce the errors resulting from having to deal with a manual installation to put them into operation, in addition to increasing their reliability. Companies, with them, have more facilities to capture location data indoors and communicate information over the air to any mobile device or application.
These access points, WiFI 6 and 6E, employ a combination of integrated GPS receivers, WiFi location support for precise timing, and intelligent software. In this way they are able to enable automated WLAN deployments with a high level of accuracy. These access points offer non-contact determination of your location, as well as continuously validating and updating your location and offering universal coordinates that can be transposed onto any plant map or web mapping platform.
Precise location of the WLAN infrastructure creates an anchored reference, which is shared using Open Locate. Enterprises can use the coordinates and this anchored reference of Aruba’s indoor access points to develop or improve asset tracking, facility planning, or optimize the experience of services and applications that use location.
According David Hughes, Aruba CTO and Product Advisor«companies have shown tremendous resilience in the face of major disruptions and tectonic shifts in their businesses over the past two years, and it has become clear that business agility is now top of mind for our clients. The advancements unveiled today will help customers evolve their approach to being “service-oriented” using AI-driven solutions, hardening security and accelerating the move to a cloud-centric network architecture, which are all hallmarks of a modern network«.
The new features announced by Aruba are available through traditional acquisition and deployment systems, or as a service through the HPE GreenLake Network for Aruba. The services of Aruba Central NetConductor are already available with an Advanced license, although in a first stage only certain clients will have access to them. In July 2022 they will be generally available. Aruba WiFi 6/6E access points include autolocation and are already being provided. Additionally, GPS capabilities are included in WiFi 6E access points, and in their price.
