SOLUTION OVERVIEW

THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE

The explosion of smartphones, tablets and Internet of Things
(IoT) devices is transforming the way we communicate,
consume services, and manage our personal lives. The
combination of mobile devices and cloud-based apps is also
changing the very nature of our work environments, where
collaborative open spaces and non-routine schedules are
becoming the norm, and the #GenMobile workforce expects
to be able to work anytime, anywhere.
As a result, organizations are adjusting their physical spaces
and technology designs to attract and retain top talent
the influx of Millennials who want an open, modern space
within a mobile-friendly environment and to boost worker
productivity. Cornell University reports 33% less attrition rate
within companies when they allow their workforce to work
wherever they roam.

IoT moves inand you thought BYOD was a headache

Workplace design and technology must move in unison

IoT was once thought to be a consumer phenomenon, but

Organizations have figured out that the move to mobilecloud is not just a technology shift. So when they start
to think about building design, they need to consider the

organizations are realizing its huge potential in creating

smarter, more efficient workspacesintelligent meeting
rooms, location services, and real time monitoring.

physical space and what type of technology needs to be in

For example, consider the smart meeting room. Imagine

place to support it.

approaching a conference space, having your presence

Leading commercial real estate and interior design firms are

also taking note and are rethinking the way they propose
office design to business leaders. Its clear that in these new
office settings, the device of choice for employees is mobile.
The workplace must have a high performance, secure Wi-Fi
infrastructure to support the mobile devices, just as we
would assume that there is lighting and electricity in place.
Solid Wi-Fi coverage is essential in the digital workplace, not
an afterthought.
In the process, these organizations can lower operating
costs as they make use of collaborative workplaces and more
efficient use of real estate. Intel noted that 60% of its cubicle
real estate was unused at any given time, and they decided
to move to digital workplaces to not only improve employee
engagement and productivity, but also to realize significant
savings in real estate costs. The U.S. General Services
Administration reports that on average, unused employee
workspaces cost organizations $10,000 to $15,000 annually.

and calendar schedule detected automatically, and then

receiving an invitation from Outlook to book the room for a
Skype for Business video call. Guests would be greeted at
the front desk, pre-enrolled for secure Wi-Fi access, and
a notification would be pushed to their phones with
step-by-step directions to the meeting room. Combining IoT
devices with contextual information location, application,
and policies yields opportunities to lower costs, build
loyalty, and drive revenue.
The possible IoT business use cases are endless. According
to the The Internet of Things 2015 report, 34 billion devices
will be connected to the Internet by 2020, of which 24 billion
will be IoT devices. The big surprise is that the largest adopter
of IoT ecosystems will be businesses, not consumers.
Businesses are projected to have 11.2 billion IoT devices
installed by 2020.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW
THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE

While IoT offers potential rewards, the thought of all of

should be able to program the underlying infrastructure

those devices connecting to the network is the stuff that

on-demand and control network access for any unknown

keeps security and IT managers up at night. The BYOD

IoT and mobile device, without wasting countless hours and

phenomenon was bad enough all those employee-owned

unnecessary resources. With the increasing variety and scale

devices blurring the lines of a secure perimeter, risky user

of apps running on the network, they need a common policy

behavior but IT got a handle on this challenge by creating

framework to move beyond the perimeter-based security

security policies based on known, contextual data that it

model for all things connected.

could trust. Given their sheer number, IoT devices need to

be an integral part of the conversation when planning the

Why does traditional networking fall short?

network infrastructure for the digital workplace. The network

Traditional networking models were built on the notion of

needs to be smart enough to classify and understand the

static desktop clients talking to a server, creating the classic

behavior of IoT devices automatically.

Local Area Network (LAN) architecture. This model has

Mobile and IoT raise challenges for IT

served us well for 20+ years because traditional application

environments have had long deployment lifecycles, a plan

According to a recent Goldman Sachs survey of CIOs, the top

and approval driven operational model that was optimized

networking spending priorities for the next twelve months

for price/performance. This model has also played into the

are network management and security as well as bundled

hands of proprietary architectures that lock customers into

wired and wireless offerings. Theres a general consensus

unnecessary complexity and expense.

that the new mobile-cloud model raises IT challenges and

CIOs will spend lots of time trying to figure out how to put the
right infrastructure in place.
Performance and integration across the wired and
wireless network
The move to mobile-cloud means that wireless is no longer
an add-on to the wired network. It needs to be incorporated
into the infrastructure design from the start and should be

With the shift to mobile-cloud, todays application

environment measures lifecycles in hours and days with
a continuous integration model that is optimized for
innovation. In this environment, static networking paradigms
fundamentally offer no real value when the network needs to
adapt in real time to changing conditions in the application,
network, and business environment.
In this new world, the entire branch network is ready for

treated as the primary means employees will get most of

mobile and IoT in hours not days, and does not require

their business done. However, the peripheral and headless

truck rolls during moves, adds and changes. Within a

devices will also rely on wireless and Ethernet connectivity.

single architecture, network components adapt to any size

Network operators, who are responsible for keeping the

office space campus or remote and increase speed

network up and running, need tools that easily deploy the

of delivery.

infrastructure end-to-end, secure it, and collect performance

information on a continual basis.
Visibility: You cant manage what you cant see
With the huge scale of devices connecting to the enterprise,
network operations teams need granular visibility into all
things and users connected. They also need to be able to
predict network issues before they happen to keep things
running without disruptions to the business.
Security: You cant control what you cant understand
IT organizations must implement the right set of tools to
quickly translate complex corporate security policies and
stringent compliance requirements to their language. They

In this model, the network is smart and takes action based

on context user role, device type, application category,
location to ensure best performance and highest level
of security for all things connected. It not only offers
connectivity, but also allows IT to gain valuable insights
on device, app, and real estate usage while also helping
businesses measure return on investment for BYOD/IoT, new
business workflows, and digital workplaces.
To say the least, these are all impossible tasks for traditional
networking.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW
THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE

2. Futureproof your wired infrastructure

The integration of the HPE and Aruba access portfolios is a
key ingredient in our mobile-first approach. As organizations
transition to the digital workplace, they wont need as many
ports as before because of the increased use of Wi-Fi.
Although a highly mobile workforce means that the majority
of users will connect via wireless, the surge in IoT devices and
the increasing use of Wi-Fi bandwidth means that the wired
infrastructure is critical, too.
HPE Smart Rate technology incorporated into the new Aruba
3810 and 5400R switches, allows you to raise the data
rates to 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps, and even 10Gbps. With multigig capability on all of its ports, the 3810 series enables IT

4 STEPS TO ARUBAS MOBILE-FIRST APPROACH

departments to futureproof their network infrastructure

The new generation of collaborative workplaces, a surge in

as new, higher capacity wireless technologies emerge. This

IoT devices, the increased speed of doing business on mobile,

transition will continue over the next few years.

and the #GenMobile workforce are leading us to the milliondollar question is the IT infrastructure ready?
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, takes a
mobile-first approach to create the foundation for the digital
workplace. To meet the challenges that IT faces, Aruba has
focused its efforts on software-powered innovation to
differentiate itself from the traditional hardware-focused
networking solutions. With an integrated wired and wireless
portfolio, and advances in network management and
security, Aruba recommends this 4-step approach and offers

3. Predict network issues before they happen

With the huge scale of devices connecting to the network,
IT needs granular visibility into the access layer at the
user, device, and app level to keep things running without
disruptions to the business. Aruba AirWave is a powerful
and easy-to-use network management system that manages
Aruba wired, wireless, and remote access networks, as well
as multi-vendor wired and wireless infrastructures.
Arubas AirWave software is a powerful tool for not only

the following advantages to best-in-class IT organizations.

monitoring your entire access network but also improving user

1. Beef up wireless to optimize for mobile and IoT

of mobile devices and IoT increase in the digital workplace,

Gigabit Wi-Fi is the foundation of the digital workplace.

the first thing that stands in the way of scalable growth is the

Arubas 802.11ac portfolio delivers an enterprise-grade,

lack of tools and resources for network operations teams to

stable wireless solution so that mobile users can roam while

maintain visibility to all things connected and the network

accessing business applications and data. Enterprises moving

infrastructure. Aruba AirWave 8.2 meets this challenge by

to voice and video calling on Wi-Fi need their IT departments

offering better network analytics and predictive visualization.

to design a wireless infrastructure that supports these apps

With AirWave, IT now gets unprecedented insights into

at high density.

experience with rich analytics. As the number and adoption

Wi-Fi connectivity. Thanks to Aruba Clarity, AirWave can

Arubas new Wave 2 access points (330 series) deliver

now proactively monitor critical non-RF metrics such as the

superb performance in high-density environments and

time it takes for a mobile device to associate with a Wi-Fi

add support for multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) and 4 Spatial

radio, authenticate to a RADIUS server, gather an IP address

Stream support (4SS). Unique in the industry, the 330 series is

through DHCP, and resolve names for DNS services. With

powered by ClientMatch technology, making sure all devices

VisualRF, IT teams can monitor Wi-Fi coverage in a time-lapse,

have the fastest connection at all times. This means increased

significantly reducing the time it takes for wireless network

network capacity and a boost in network efficiency, with fewer

engineers to troubleshoot the toughest Wi-Fi performance

headaches for IT.

issues. With Aruba AppRF, IT can get detailed analytics on

mobile app quality and bandwidth usage to make intelligent
decisions on QoS policy assignments for devices and users.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW
THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE

In other words, IT now has a crystal ball into potential

CONCLUSION

network issues, so that they can predict and fix connectivity

The move to mobile-cloud is not just a technology shift.

problems before the user is affected, instead of just

Organizations see business benefits recruiting and

troubleshooting after the fact. That means fewer outages and

retaining top Millennials, lowering operating costs, boosting

always-on connectivity for todays 24/7 global businesses.

productivity in the move to the digital workplace. As

4. Secure the network with smart policy management

The Aruba ClearPass Policy Management Platform allows
IT to assert and enforce trust on every user and device on
the wireless, wired and VPN network. To do this, ClearPass
leverages real-time, trusted, contextual data a persons
role inside an organization, device and app attributes,
location and insight from third party security solutions to
create policies that satisfy highly mobile and IoT security needs.

organizations start to consider new office design initiatives,

it is key for them to assess what type of technologies need to
be in place to support them.
Arubas mobile-first approach optimizes for the digital
workplace. With an integrated wired and wireless access layer
portfolio, secure IoT support, and advancements in network
management and security solutions, Aruba is ready for your
mobile-cloud world. Today and into the future.

The latest enhancements to ClearPass enable custom profiles

to be created in order to identify and secure IoT devices in
real-time. Through its integration with Duo Security and
ImageWare systems, it enables stronger mobile device and
app authentication. Through real-time interaction with third
party security solutions, ClearPass offers automated threat
protection and recovery for devices that represent risk, with
minimal hands-on IT interaction.
ClearPass works across multivendor networks by replacing
outdated legacy AAA with context-aware policies. It offers
profiling, BYOD and guest onboarding services, and
integrates with MDM, EMM, firewall, and SIEM solutions from
other vendors. Massive scalability and load-balancing ensure
that ClearPass will meet your evolving business needs.

1344 CROSSMAN AVE | SUNNYVALE, CA 94089

1.866.55.ARUBA | T: 1.408.227.4500 | FAX: 1.408.227.4550 | [email protected]

www.arubanetworks.com

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