Aruba Integrates Cloud-Managed SD-WAN Into Its Software-Defined Branch

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) company, bundled SD-WAN, wired, and wireless networking technologies, along with unified security and policy enforcement, into a new edge offering it calls Software-Defined Branch (SD-Branch). “Software-Defined Branch is a unified, software-defined architecture that spans the entire branch, ranging all the way from WiFi to SD-WAN,” said Lissa Hollinger, VP of product and solution marketing for Aruba, during a press conference at HPE Discover, today. “It’s cloud-managed by Aruba Central and also includes policy management and enforcement.” The new product helps branch operators manage networking and security as they adopt multi-cloud architectures and oversee a growing number of mobile and IoT devices, executives said. “The idea is to impose some sort of security discipline without increasing difficulty from a network perspective,” said Larry Lunetta, Aruba VP of security. Aruba’s SD-Branch architecture integrates new 7000 series branch gateways to provide a single point for SD-WAN, wired, and wireless networking policy and security enforcement. Context-awareness capabilities are embedded in the new controllers in addition to other features such as policy-based routing and dynamic path selection. This means the gateways can use this contextual data and awareness to dynamically route traffic across the WAN based on user, device, or group affiliation. For example, retail organizations can prioritize point-of-sale system and video traffic versus guest traffic, while hotels can prioritize voice traffic for anyone involved with customer service. The SD-Branch architecture also uses Aruba Central, the company’s cloud management platform, which now supports SD-WAN. This provides automated configuration capabilities and granular visibility. “This allows a customer to have a single pane of glass that allows them to manage and secure branch architectures,” Hollinger said.