HPE Aruba Introduces Mobile First Platform

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, today announced the Aruba Mobile First Platform, a software layer that uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide third-party developers and business leaders network insights to improve applications and services. The platform accelerates integration and innovation of mobile and IoT at the speed of the developer ecosystem, rather than the pace of a single vendor.

To support today’s mobile first and rapidly developing IoT environment, networks must deliver more than connectivity. The days of one-dimensional networks designed for static functions are over. Modern networks must be able to easily adapt new application requirements on-demand. With actionable insights about the use of specific mobile apps and the operational technologies powered by IoT, they need to help organisations justify future digital technology investments.

The Aruba Mobile First Platform unlocks the ability for an ecosystem of developers and technology vendors to freely innovate, utilizing the rich contextual information the Aruba infrastructure collects from mobile and IoT devices, and dynamically customise networking functions in real-time. As a result, customers can improve existing and create new applications to enhance the customer experience, improve business operations, and drive new revenue opportunities.

Advanced network controls and policy enforcement for pervasive mobility
The foundation of the Aruba Mobile First Platform is built on ArubaOS 8.0, a new operating system that allows developers to leverage contextual information from the infrastructure via its northbound API. Deployed as a virtual machine (VM) on a server appliance, ArubaOS 8.0 significantly simplifies changes within the infrastructure and enables customers to instantly scale their networks.

ArubaOS 8.0 also enables greater programmability in the Aruba infrastructure with the ability to upload custom app signatures in real-time. Developers and ecosystem partners can easily enable policy management and quality control for new, business critical applications – without requiring network upgrades or outages.

Ecosystem partner, Skyfii, harnesses the power of the Aruba Mobile First Platform to help businesses analyse and visualise customer behaviour data. Leveraging contextual data about users, devices, applications and location from the Aruba Analytics and Location Engine (ALE), Skyfii gives retailers a better understanding of behaviour and lets them engage shoppers with targeted advertising and marketing calls to actions.

Increased network and application access control for mobile and IoT
The latest enhancements to Aruba ClearPass software as part of the Mobile First Platform deliver deeper insights into all connected devices and improves capabilities for third party integration.

The new ClearPass Extensions make it easier for IT security professionals and developers to integrate cloud hosted technology services with Aruba ClearPass. Without major code changes to the base ClearPass software, ecosystem partners simply place their software into a repository that can be leveraged via an API. This allows customers to easily and quickly create automated workflows.

In the case of McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), Intel Security’s unified management platform, users can check the status of a device. McAfee ePO also provides unified management of endpoint, network and data security. With end-to-end visibility and powerful automation tools, McAfee ePO dramatically strengthens protection and drives down the cost and complexity of managing risk and security.

“ClearPass Extensions and the Aruba Mobile First Platform provide a simplified, open model for us to rapidly integrate and extend our offering,” said D.J. Long, Head of Intel Security Innovation Alliance. “The McAfee ePO integration with ClearPass provides customers unified visibility of security posture regardless of network, device type or user location, and automates access policy to safeguard enterprise network.”