New CX Series Switches with Cloud-Native Operating System Integrate Closed-Loop Automation and Analytics to Simplify the Operator Experience

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that it is changing the rules of networkingwith the introduction of switching and software innovations designed to address the unique needs of today’s modern enterprise campus, branch and data center. The Aruba CX Switching Portfolionow includes the Aruba CX 6300 Series fixed configuration and CX 6400 Series modular access, aggregation and core switches, while delivering the latest advancements in the AOS-CX operating system. This gives network operators one simple, end-to-end switching platform to dramatically improve business outcomes today and into the future. 

Aruba is the first company to offer a single switching platform that runs on a modern network operating system – AOS-CX– from the enterprise edge to the core to the data center. This unique, cloud-native platform is further optimized by Aruba’s powerful Network Analytics Engine (NAE), which utilizes embedded analytics and automation to simplify management, accelerate troubleshooting of application performance issues and remediate common network problems.  

“AI-powered automation must be at the heart of a modern, edge-to-cloud architecture and, in order to be truly useful, it requires an intelligent infrastructure as the foundation,” said Keerti Melkote, president and founder at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “We believe that AI is the key to analyzing data, providing actionable insights, and automation at scale to optimize network operators’ ability to quickly troubleshoot, remediate and proactively resolve some of IT’s most pressing challenges. Our vision for the future is a cloud-native architecture that delivers true business agility and new digital experiences, and today’s introduction is an important step in that direction.” 

Today’s enterprises cannot remain competitive by relying on greater performance and increased bandwidth alone. The modern enterprise requires an advanced architecture that is self-validating and self-tuning through closed-loop automation to intelligently support mission-critical applications, circumvent new security attack vectors, and deliver the agility that today’s enterprises require. Until now, network operators have had to contend with inflexible, disparate architectures especially when managing branch offices, enterprise campuses and data centers. These architectures require manual processes across multiple operating systems, resulting in fragmented operating models, networks incapable of modern functions and a plethora of unstructured data that isn’t actionable. 

Gartner states, “As update speed increases, it is no longer viable to manually plan for and deploy tens, hundreds or thousands of network changes each time an application change occurs. Making these changes manually is not only impractical, but is likely to result in significant errors.”^[1]Manual processes can significantly hinder an organization’s ability to move quickly, innovate and thrive in a competitive marketplace. Moreover, many of these hurdles can be overcome with a cloud-native infrastructure. According to Gartner, a “cloud-native infrastructure exhibits the following characteristics:  

• Modularity – It provides abstractions for independent packaging of services (such as containers or serverless functions).
• Programmability – It supports provisioning and management via declarative APIs and policies.
• Elasticity – Resources can be scaled up and down dynamically in an automated and policy-driven manner using orchestrators.
• Resiliency – Services are loosely coupled units that are independent and fault-tolerant.^[2]”

Modern enterprises need an edge-to-cloud network running on a common platform to benefit from automation and increased operational efficiency, freeing up network operators to focus on business-critical activities. 

One OS. One ASIC Architecture. One Operating Model.

Stemmingfrom the breakthrough innovation and success of itsCX 8400 Seriescore switches running the AOS-CX operating system – as evidenced by significant momentum with winning new core customers– Aruba is addressing these challenges with a modern switching portfolio that delivers a single operating model from the enterprise campus and branch access layer to the data center, greatly simplifying network operations. The new platforms in the Aruba CX Switching Portfolio incorporate the key elements of a modern networking infrastructure and include:

• Aruba CX 6300 and CX 6400 Series switches featuring Aruba’s 7^thGeneration ASIC architecture: The Aruba CX 6300 Seriesis a family of stackable switches that offers flexible growth via a 10-member virtual switching framework (VSF) and provides built-in 10/25/50 gigabit uplinks to meet the bandwidth needs of today and the future. The Aruba CX 6400 Seriesmodular switches offer both a 5-slot chassis and a 10-slot chassis with a non-blocking fabric that scales from Gigabit POE access to 100G core, allowing customers to standardize on one platform across the enterprise, including hybrid use cases. 
• AOS-CX 10.4: The new version ofAOS-CX introduces rich access features to the OS while extending CX differentiators to the access layer of the network. These include Aruba Dynamic Segmentationto provide secure, unified policy across wired and wireless down to every user and IoT device, Ethernet VPN (EVPN) over VxLAN for simplified and secure connectivity from enterprises to data centers, and Virtual Switching Extension (VSX) live upgrades for no downtime during maintenance cycles.
• Aruba NetEdit 2.0 with Network Analytics Engine (NAE): The significantly enhanced version of Aruba’s NetEditsoftwarenow integrates with Aruba’s NAE. This advancement enablescentralized visualization of network health leveraging NAE distributed analytics across every switch in the network to reduce troubleshooting cycles from days to minutes. New automation capabilities simplify common tasks such as implementing configuration changes or initial system set-up which can now be completed via the CX Mobile app.

 A10 Networks(NYSE: ATEN), today announced a value added distributor partnership agreement with Redington Gulf across United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Redington will promote A10 Networks’ entire portfolio of leading solutions including service provider network security to support IoT in the age of 5G, multi-cloud management, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) with Zero-day Automated Protection (ZAP), carrier-grade networking (CGN) and application visibility and analytics. 

Ehab Halablab, Regional Channel Manager – MENA at A10 Networks said, “As our company continues to increase focus and investment in the Middle East region, we require strong channel support to grow our share of the enterprise market. We believe that Redington, with its vast channel network, can help us to recruit new reseller partners into our Affinity Partner program. We will also rely on their sales and marketing expertise and technical training services to promote the A10 Networks brand and increase our partners’ knoweldge of our company’s technologies.”

“Redington has a strong portfolio of security vendors that provide solutions like SIEM, IPS, DLP, packet broker and forensics, that complement those of A10 Networks. This plays well for both our companies and provides growth opportunities. We look forward to growing our footprint in the region through this new partnership.”

With the addition of A10 Networks, Redington can now build and offer partners and customers a robust, end-to-end solution, integrating complementary solutions from various vendors in the company’s portfolio. It also gives Redington the opportunity of revisiting existing customer accounts and using A10 Networks’ solutions to cross-sell/up-sell. 

Redington will be investing into a ‘train your trainer’ scheme, which involves a dedicated employee getting trained by the vendor. The distributor will then act as an Authorized Training Centre (ATC) and build scheduled technical workshops to deliver high level technical training and updates to resellers and partners, including certification programs. 

“5G and Multi-cloud environments are two of today’s biggest trends that will transform the market. 5G and multi-cloud environments require the most automated and reliable security solutions to ensure that business-critical applications are protected and always available. A10 Networks has proven market leading technologies in these areas, and as such, the vendor is an invaluable addition to our portfolio. We are excited to be able to offer the company’s security solutions to our partners and customers across the region,” concludes Sayantan Dev, Senior Vice President at Redington Gulf.