Aruba Networks, a leader in wireless LAN and secure mobility solutions announced a series of Asia Pacific-wide seminars in new virtual branch network solutions for branch offices and teleworkers. The new seminar was launch in Malaysia on 27 May.  

“We tend to plan such activities once every six months. However, we will still have series of training, workshops, small-scale seminars with our partners and customers,” said Kevin Wong, Aruba Networks country manager.

These seminars will focus on controlling expenses, reducing complexity, and enhancing productivity.

Aruba's new Virtual Branch Network (VBN) solution transparently and securely connects remote users with enterprise applications and resources, greatly simplifying the management of branch offices, clinics, home offices, and teleworkers while significantly lowering networking costs.

It's also designed to be rapidly deployed in business continuity services associated with disaster and pandemic recovery.

The seminars will introduce Aruba’s new VBN software for data center-based Aruba controllers, three new families of wired and wireless Remote Access Points (RAPs) and Branch Office Controllers (BOCs), and four VBN deployment scenarios: instant branch office, virtual call center, virtual workforce, and business continuity.

Traditional remote networking solutions replicate routing, switching, firewall, and other services at each remote location. The equipment required is expensive and the services are complex to set-up and manage.

Instead, VBN solution virtualises complex tasks at data centre controllers and pushes them to inexpensive RAPs and BOCs for execution. A centrally controlled, policy enforcement firewall in the data centre controller governs user access to the network and its resources by pushing policies to firewall agents in every RAP and BOC, and these agents automatically enforce the policies for every user and service.  

Since all of the complex tasks are centrally managed and automatically disseminated, RAP and BOC set-up is quick and easy. Secure one-click installation allows a non-technical person to provision a branch office in minutes, with no intervention or assistance by the IT department.

RAPs and BOCs are transport-independent, and work with virtually any wide-area network - including 3G cellular – for instant connectivity. A RAP can literally be mailed to a remote user, connected to power and the WAN, and be fully commissioned following a single data entry.  

The three new families of RAPs and BOCs feature policy-based local and remote packet forwarding, and Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) technology for optimized Wi-Fi operation. A diagnostics feature displays status on a simple user interface, and provides one-button debugging and one-button reset to factory defaults. Other key features of the new product families include:

The RAP-2 family is no larger than a deck of playing cards and it's designed for use by 1 to 5 users, which is ideal for teleworkers, micro-branches, and SOHO (small office, home office) applications. An 802.11b/g Wi-Fi radio and two Ethernet ports for use with wired devices, such as VoIP phones, are provided.

RAP2 has an Ethernet port that can be connected to an ADSL, 3G-HSDPA or other broadband modem- router with Ethernet ports to enable access to the internet.  

The book-sized RAP-5 family includes 5 high-speed Ethernet ports, a USB port for a broadband 3G cellular modem, hardware accelerated encryption, and, optionally, an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio with integrated antennas. The RAP-5 is designed for micro-branches with up to 50 users;

USB-cellular modem supported include Verizon USB 727, Compass 597 (Sprint), Ovation U727 (Sprint), Sierra U597 (Verizon), UM150 (Verizon), UM175 (Verizon), USBConnect881(ATT), Huawei Modem, and like the RAP-2 it also connects to an existing wired or wireless broadband modem via an Ethernet port.

Designed as a “branch-in-a-box” solution for offices with up to 256 users, the 600 Branch Office Controller family offers a broad range of WAN connectivity, network-attached storage, gigabit Ethernet, power-over-Ethernet (PoE), Express Card, and USB options. An integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi radio option rounds out the package. It too connects to third-party a 3G HSDPA-USB cellular broadband modem or via a desktop wired or wireless broadband modem via an Ethernet port.

A single Aruba 6000 Multi-Service Controller equipped with VBN software will support up to 8,000 RAP or 600 series devices, and up to 32,000 users.

“VBN is focused on reducing the cost and complexity of branch office networking, and is one of three Aruba initiatives focused on lowering IT expenses,” said Albert Tay, Aruba general manager for ASEAN and India.

Another initiative, network rightsizing, targets overbuilt wired LANs by showing users how to lower expenses by using wireless LANs everywhere possible and wired LANs only where they’re needed.

The third initiative leverages Aruba’s AirWave Management Platform to extend the life of existing wireless LANs by providing detailed management, diagnostics, compliance, and help desk support missing from proprietary management tools.

The seminars will discuss all three initiatives in detail.