Aruba Networks has introduced its
new Virtual Branch Networking 2.0, designed to bring networking services to
small branches and home offices by introducing a cloud element to the overall
solution.
“With VBN 1.0 we provided the secure connection,” said Mike Tennefoss, head of
strategic marketing at Aruba. “With 2.0, we are leveraging that infrastructure to
provide critical business services from the cloud, such as application storage,
and remote access for road warriors.”
The new product arrives just a few months after the company hired a new channel
chief, Bob Bruce, who will now serve as vice president of Worldwide Channel
Sales for the company that does 90 percent of sales through its channel
partners.
Bruce, who spent four years at Cisco and three years at Juniper Networks, noted
that Aruba is putting money behind the company’s channel program and
sales of the VBN 2.0 product line with neutral compensation for inside sales
representatives to encourage strong collaboration with channel partners.
The company currently claims 500 certified partners and 1,200 total partners.
Aruba’s VBN product line is designed to capitalize on the trend
for more distributed business operations, according to Tennefoss. Aruba noted
that mobile workers need secure network services, including application
acceleration and content security, but running them across hundreds or
thousands of locations on dedicated branch appliances is costly and complex.
VBN 2.0 migrates these services into the cloud, reducing capital expenditures
by up to 60 percent and operating expenses by up to 75 percent, according to Aruba’s
estimates.
Aruba’s VBN solution, first introduced in 2009, offers a family
of low-cost, centrally managed Remote Access Points (RAPs). Features include
the following:
- Application Acceleration Service
(AAS): a cloud service that can accelerate the performance of applications in
the branch office by 20 times, without new hardware or software in the branch;
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): a subscription-based file caching service to speed up
application response times in a branch office using a cloud-based CDN to
serve files locally from a nearby data center;
- Content Security Service (CSS): a cloud service that provides antivirus/anti-spam
protection, real-time content filtering and data leakage prevention.
Instantaneous and long-term historical reports can quickly identify policy
violations.
“With companies becoming increasingly distributed, solutions that can
facilitate inexpensive service delivery and enterprise collaboration are of
great interest,” said Phil Hochmuth, senior analyst at Yankee Group, in a
statement. “Enterprise cloud computing is gathering steam because its abilities to
reduce costs and increase efficiency are too hard to ignore. Migrating
applications and services from ‘branch-office-in-a-box' appliances to the cloud
is part of a natural progression down the cost curve.”
Also as part of the VBN 2.0 solution, Aruba is introducing a Virtual Intranet Access (VIA)
client to provide road warriors and other mobile workers with Windows-based
laptops, netbooks and PCs with user-friendly, secure access to the corporate
network without separate, dedicated VPN infrastructure. The client shares the
same data center controllers as RAPs, simplifying access and cutting the cost
of remote access.
Computer Networking 
