Marie Ashway
Director of Marketing
Aruba Networks is one of the best networking platforms available and rivals well against many of its competitors. However, do organizations really know enough about Aruba technology product offerings? In my work with Mainline customers across the United States, Aruba Networks is still a niche offering in some geographies, but in others, it’s a very popular brand that is utilized for many different aspects of the infrastructure – networking, wireless connectivity, and security.
Founded in 2002 and purchased by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2015, Aruba has started to roll out a brand of product that is very beneficial in the marketplace. Aruba’s wireless solution is top-notch, with its sturdy controllers and high-end access points. ClearPass is an industry-leading security solution that is rolled out for identity services to many customers. With its purchase of Silver Peak in 2020, Aruba has now dipped into the SD-WAN market, rounding out its offerings.
Game-Changing Technology in Switching
The main purpose of this blog, however, is to provide a more in-depth look into Aruba’s newer switching line. There have been some very exciting developments in technology and ideas that Aruba provides to many different companies and entities. There are many switching offerings, but I wanted to focus on the CX lines, which encompass plenty of game-changing technology!
First, let’s look at the CX switching line, Aruba’s pride and joy with capabilities for all aspects of an infrastructure. From data center to the access layer, from fixed to modular, Aruba’s CX switches have options for everyone.
CX 6000 and CX 6100
Starting with the access layer, the 6000 series and up provide many different options for port capacity and speed. The CX 6000 series has basic layer 2 switches with PoE capabilities. The fanless 12 port model is compact for tight places. PoE is also available, which makes sense for small branch offices that have a few users with IP phone capabilities also needed. The 6100 series doubles down on that and provides 10 Gigabit uplinks. These two switching lines really are the entry-level CX switching models, cost effective for even the most basic environments without going overkill on options users and infrastructures don’t need.
CX 6200
Expanding on the access layer, the 6200 begins to add layer 3 capabilities for those basic environments. Added to this model line was VSF, Virtual Switching Framework, which provides stacking capabilities. This series also provides PoE capabilities of 740W for switching models as well. Management of the devices provides users many options to configure and control these devices, including the command line, web GUI and now Aruba Central, Aruba’s centralized management tool.
CX 6300 and CX 6400
The 6300 and 6400 CX models provide another uptick in the access layer models that could even be used in a small-sized data center. Models in the 6300 series have regular fixed switches, while the 6400 switches are modular. The 6400 series has provided some customers who were used to the modular switching approach, and who have perhaps been Cisco 4500 series customers in the past, some comfortability in deployment and style. Another great option provided with these models is 25G capabilities.
But both models provide some technology that many customers feel are game-changers within their environments. These models provide Always-On PoE. Always-On PoE is a very helpful tool for anyone managing a switch environment that does not have a lot of downtime available for maintenance. An example of this would be switch software upgrades that require a reboot. Always-On PoE helps with this issue, as power is still provided to a port on a reboot. Why is this important? Think of wireless, IoT or IP phones that require as much uptime as possible. Environments like this could be hospitals, schools, hospitality, and manufacturing, just to name a few. Access points would no longer need to lose power and go through the boot process again. IoT devices would no longer lose power to their environment, as sometimes user and manual intervention is required to bring these devices back online. IP Phones would stay online, and communications would still stay up despite any reboots taking place.
Virtual Output Queuing (VOQ) is also a huge help on switching. When it comes to Quality of Service, it’s important that traffic gets to go where it needs to go, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Bottlenecks very much have a negative impact on an environment. VOQ helps load balance buffers for the traffic across egress ports by handling it more on the ingress side. This may not be as important for smaller businesses, but it’s a huge addition for companies looking to ensure traffic flow is handled properly.
CX 8000 Series
Finally, the 8000 series provides multiple options for data center-minded customers requiring high-end performance and availability. The 8300 series, consisting of currently the 8320, 8325, and 8360, are singular switches and provide options as aggregation, core, leaf, and spine. Multiple options are available for 25G capabilities, as well as 40 and 100. With high-end switching performance and advanced layer 2 and 3 capabilities, the 8000 series of Aruba switches are worth a conversation for many customers.
Summary
In the end, Aruba CX switching provides great options across all facets of the networking infrastructure. This is just CX switching. There are many other options as well, such as Instant On devices, that are game-changers for the environment. In any case, Aruba Networks needs to be considered for customers looking for high-end, scalable, and flexible solutions anywhere within their networking infrastructure.
Harness Data at the Edge
As an HPE/Aruba Platinum partner, Mainline has a deep-rooted, long-term relationship with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and specifically Aruba Networks. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has solutions that can address a wide variety of network and security challenges from the data center to the cloud.
Together we help our customers solve today’s as well as tomorrow’s data networking challenges. From assessments and analyzing the current architecture to designing and implementing a new solution, Mainline has the proficiencies necessary to help your company drive powerful business outcomes.
More Information
For more information about Aruba Networks, contact your Mainline Account Executive directly or reach us here.
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