Summary – Aruba Atmosphere 2022 in Las Vegas

On site in Las Vegas

Finally we can be seen at events like this for real! Aranya had the privilege of participating on site at Aruba Atmosphere 2022 in Las Vegas and it was a very successful event. Many dear reunions mixed with new launches, one thing is for sure and that is that the development has not stood still during the pandemic! Here are some of my personal highlights from Atmosphere 2022.

A hybrid SD-WAN

Historically, there have been many ways to connect their devices and sites to key points and with each other in Aruba’s product portfolio. Since the purchase of Silverpeak, those possibilities have been further broadened and we now see how Aruba’s strategy takes shape and enables a unified SD-WAN that spans the entire product flora. From client VPN, to Microbranch, to Branch office and also sites with even higher requirements such as the premium office or data center. This means that you can choose freely depending on the requirements for each site and thus get the right level of functions at the right cost while you are part of the same SD-WAN orchestration. Very nice!

Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) and Aruba AOS 10

Probably when you read this, Aruba OS 10 is available to the public, finally! Aruba OS 10 comes with several architectural changes and requires Aruba Central. There are no longer any virtual controllers that in the former Aruba Instant and our dear controllers change their name again to Gateways. Dear children really have many names 😊 More and more functions and automation possibilities span the entire product flora and the incentives increase to gather their entire network, wired, wireless, SD-WAN, client VPN in one and the same platform.

It is also in this version that we see a merge of the so-called “SD-WAN code” into the regular Aruba OS code for WLAN. Aranya looks forward to working with our customers and supporting them in the migration to AOS 10 and Aruba ESP.

Micro-segmentation from a single interface

Aruba is now tying the bag further and building a function in Aruba central which they call “NetConductor”. This feature enables a central view where you control the assignment of roles and security features as well as regulations that span your network globally regardless of the site or whether the client is running wired or wireless. It is also from here that you get the choice to build an overlay or not. Very powerful and with many choices to fit in many different applications, really looking forward to working more in NetConductor.

Open Locate

We witnessed the launch of a new strategy from Aruba regarding positioning, which is basically based on Wi-Fi Round Trip Time in 802.11mc. This is a technique that is more accurate than traditional triangulation based on signal strength. Instead, they use response times and coordinate these between several points to be able to obtain a position as accurate as 1-2 meters. The support for this is available in APs of model 5xx and up.

In addition to this, APs in the wifi 6E series (6xx) come with a built-in GPS receiver to be able to self-locate to a geographical location and in combination with the above-mentioned functions, the access points in an Aruban network should be able to place themselves on a map when you give it a pair of anchor points, very nice!