Aruba’s AirWave 7 Brings Unified Management to the Mobile Enterprise

Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), a global leader in 802.11n wireless LANs and secure mobility solutions, today announced AirWave 7, a major extension of its award-winning operations solution that integrates the management of wireless networks, wired infrastructure, and client devices into a single interface. As increasingly mobile enterprise users connect to networks from more locations, using a wider variety of devices than ever before, IT organizations have struggled with the proliferation of vendor-specific, single-purpose management tools need to support these networks. AirWave 7 solves this problem by providing a single point of visibility and control for the entire network edge, including wired and wireless infrastructure as well as individual client devices. In so doing, AirWave 7 reduces the cost and complexity of network management, while improving service quality for users.

"The requirements and expectations of the mobile worker, and the tools used by him or her, are now the same as for the wired worker in terms of reliability, latency, predictability, and availability of real-time data,” said Abner Germanow, IDC’s Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure. "As WLAN deployments attain levels of reliability and control that rival wired networks, IDC expects a broader set of applications to be driven to wireless networks. Wireless performance then becomes mission-critical, and IT organizations need to assume control over all of the components that drive service quality, including wired infrastructure and client devices.”

"If a problem interferes with one of our mission-critical applications, our users don't care whether the cause is the device's firmware, the wireless AP's signal or a down switch - they just want it fixed,” said Greg Catalano, Senior Network Engineer at Boise Inc. "With its new wired infrastructure and mobile device management capabilities, AirWave 7 delivers the type of user-centric management that meets our users' needs and aligns with our goal of driving down IT support costs.”

AirWave 7 significantly enhances the capabilities of Aruba’s award-winning AirWave management suite by incorporating the following new features:

• New AirWave Mobile Device Manager (MDM) module: Provides over-the-air management of business-critical devices ranging from handheld devices to self-service kiosks to wireless printers – saving time and money while improving service quality.
• Wired infrastructure management: The AirWave Management Platform (AMP) now manages edge switches from Cisco and HP to provide integrated wired and wireless management. AMP can map upstream relationships between APs, controllers, and switches enabling root-cause analysis for scenarios such as a down AP – accelerating time to problem resolution.
• Improvements to open architecture: XML API eases integration between AirWave 7 and the rest of the IT operations infrastructure. The use of open standards makes valuable AirWave data accessible to virtually any application developer without specialized knowledge of the AirWave platform.
• Customizable user interface and dashboards: AirWave administrators can create customized views for specific roles, such as service desk personnel or executives, so that each person sees the information that is most useful. Users can also create and save customized reports and incorporate report components in their personalized dashboards.
• Support for state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure: Includes support for Aruba’s newest products and management capabilities.

The growing reliance on mobile devices in retail, logistics, transportation, manufacturing, and other industries has made mobile device management an essential task. The powerful monitoring, diagnostic, and Help Desk features of AirWave 7 can expedite the detection and resolution of network and device problems, maximizing device up-time.

"Honeywell’s Dolphin™ Series of rugged mobile computers increase enterprise productivity and efficiency, especially when coupled with a robust wireless LAN and flexible device management,” said Mark Schmidt, Honeywell Scanning & Mobility’s Director of Strategic Marketing. "Our mobile computers are certified interoperable with Aruba’s Wi-Fi networks, which provide access to business-critical applications anywhere a user roams. And now with AirWave 7, our Windows Mobile™ devices can be managed, monitored, updated, and even remotely rebooted via the same console that manages the Wi-Fi network. The end result is reduced complexity and lower overhead for the IT staff.”

"The AirWave MDM module offers a unique value proposition because it provides remote management of both Datamax-O'Neil wired and wireless printers without requiring any printer-resident agent software,” said Endre Vargha, Vice President of Research & Engineering for Datamax-O’Neil. "Partnering with AirWave provides another avenue to help our customers reduce the cost of deploying and supporting our industry-leading commercial printer solutions.”

AirWave 7 can be delivered as software, on an appliance, or using the recently announced AirWave OnDemand (AoD) software as a service (SaaS) model. "AirWave 7 combines the functions of multiple tools from different manufacturers into one powerful, easy-to-use solution,” said Bryan Wargo, General Manager of Aruba’s AirWave group. "It truly stands alone in its ability to integrate wireless, wired and device management.”

AirWave 7 is currently undergoing customer field tests and is scheduled to be shipping in March 2010. For additional information please visit our Web site.

About Aruba Networks

People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam, using a combination of award-winning solutions:

• Adaptive 802.11n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical information. Rightsizing expensive wired LANs by replacing them with high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi reduces both capital and operating expenses;
• Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed;
• Remote networking solutions for branch offices, fixed telecommuters, and satellite facilities ensures uninterrupted remote access to applications;
• Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its competitors.

The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ArubaNetworks.

© 2010 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave^®, Aruba Networks^®, Aruba Mobility Management System^®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works^®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., RFProtect, The All Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company^® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.