DUBAI, UAE, 16th October, 2019 – Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that organizations globally are replacing their core switching infrastructure with the Aruba 8000 Series Core Switches running ArubaOS-CX (AOS-CX), the industry’s most advanced operating system purpose-built for the unique demands of the mobile, IoT and cloud era.

The Aruba 8000 Series hardware and software breakthrough design principles provide deep visibility, advanced telemetry and simplified automation, allowing network operators to utilize data and insights to drive better business outcomes. To date, numerous enterprise customers – over 80 new customers per month – have replaced their existing core switches with the Aruba 8000 Series and are realizing significant business benefits.

The key to unleashing the full benefits of the 8000 Series lies within the AOS-CX operating system, a cloud-native, programmable software foundation that acts as the brains of the switch to automate and simplify many critical and complex network functions. Coupled with the 8000 Series’ carrier-class availability and performance, AOS-CX enables customers to leverage actionable insights from the network while using machine learning-based automation to quickly and efficiently identify and remediate network issues before they negatively impact the business or end user experience.

Faith Regional Health Services, a 129-bed acute care facility in northeast Nebraska, installed its Aruba 8320 switches earlier this year. As a regional referral center dedicated to providing comprehensive, high-quality healthcare, Faith Regional Health Services’ primary goal was to establish dual redundancy within their core network to simplify IT system maintenance with zero downtime. Faith Regional’s IT team also leveraged advanced features of the AOS-CX operating system, and its integration with Aruba ClearPass, a full spectrum security solution for network access control (NAC), to ensure that network access is granted to the right users via stringent policy enforcement. With the Aruba 8000 Series, Faith Regional is able to deliver secure, reliable connectivity to the thousands of mobile and IoT devices on its network, while improving productivity for its 1,200 employees and eliminating downtime during maintenance cycles.

“The Aruba 8320s allowed us to finally have dual redundancy and perform zero downtime maintenance. In addition, it’s enabling us to advance our security strategy with Aruba ClearPass,” said Paul Feilmeier, director of Information Technology at Faith Regional Health Services. “I expected state-of-the-art technology from Aruba and that’s what we got with the 8320s.” 

The Aruba 8000 Series Core Switches also provide the performance and resiliency necessary for global enterprises to operate at the pace of business. Ingeteam is an international group specializing in power and control electronics and electrical engineering and automation projects with operations in 22 countries around the world. Based in Spain, its products, systems and services specialize in energy conversion across multiple energy sectors, including wind, hydro and fossil fuel power generation, and metal and mineral processing. Ingeteam Power Technology deployed the Aruba 8400 in its enterprise campus, distribution and data center core and Aruba 8320 switches in the data center access layer as part of a network upgrade to modernize its infrastructure to better address the needs of its customers.

For Ingeteam Power Technology, the built-in automation and analytics capabilities of the AOS-CX operating system have provided the increased visibility needed to proactively address issues before they paralyze the network. According to Endika Eibar, IT manager at Ingeteam Power Technology, “The analytics we gain from the network have provided us with simplified visibility into possible incidents and anomalies, which is very helpful when analyzing problems. The ability to customize the information via dashboards makes it even easier to see the data that’s most important.”

Education customers are also realizing benefits from their Aruba 8000 core switch deployments. With the explosive growth of e-learning initiatives, coupled with the increased demands on the network from mobile and IoT devices, educational institutions need solutions that deliver always-on, high-performance connectivity that does not require day-to-day manual IT intervention.

Grove City College, a 180-acre liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, deployed the Aruba 8400 switches in the core to help facilitate connected, engaging experiences for its students, faculty and staff. Grove City selected the Aruba 8400 for its bandwidth capacity, the simplified management made possible by AOS-CX, such as the ability to use programming scripts for task automation, security integration, and its Network Analytics Engine (NAE) which leverages machine learning to proactively alert network operators of impending issues.

“At Grove City College, we’re currently in the midst of a digital transformation unlike any we’ve seen before in our college’s history,” said Vincent DiStasi, chief information officer at Grove City College. “To be able to bring intelligence into the core, while automating network management, goes a long way towards reducing complexity and increasing efficiency, allowing us to be more agile and nimble as an organization.”

For Appleton Area School District in Wisconsin, the need to simplify network operations was paramount in the decision to implement the Aruba 8000 Series. Serving 16,000 students and 2,500 staff across 37 school sites, the school district needed a robust, high performance switching solution that could help simplify operations by bringing together several disparate systems through the use of a common management platform.

“With the Aruba 8400 and 8325, all of the hardware and software works together in a similar manner, making day-to-day configuration simple and fast,” said Adam Hanson, network administrator at Appleton Area School District. “This allows us to move forward with new technology initiatives without worrying about infrastructure limitations both now and well into the future.”

For Aruba 8000 Series customers, the future is bright. Ingeteam Power Technology’s Eibar concludes, “With Aruba’s innovations, we see a long-term growth trajectory and not only because of the performance it offers, but also because of the advanced functionalities that are delivered via software.”