According to Gartner, "By 2025, 85% infrastructure strategies will integrate on-premises, colocation, cloud, and edge delivery options." This represents a significant increase compared to just 20% in 2020.
This is a significant architectural shift, requiring workloads to be located closer to the edge environments where data is generated.
However, many enterprise IT organizations are not yet prepared for this shift. The edges of each separate computing and storage area are connected through a disjointed network architecture. This architecture hinders centralized management, orchestration, security, and visibility. Technologies like SD-WAN and SASEWhile edge-to-edge interconnection is increasingly being addressed, simplicity of overall IT operations remains a key challenge.
“Given the rise of distributed data centers, there is no doubt that data center networking must be reimagined and redesigned.
From a distributed data center perspective, network modernization is essential to deliver the agility, flexibility, elastic scalability, inherent security, and simplified management required by the cloud.”
Brad Casemore, Vice President of Data Center Network Research, IDC
What we need now is a new architectural approach that's edge-centric, cloud-enabled, and data-centric. Ultimately, we need to deliver a cloud experience to IT operators, whether in traditional data centers, colocation sites, or the new digital edge—a simple, fast, and secure package, all delivered through a flexible consumption model.
A new networking solution for Edge-to-Cloud: “Center of Data”
Aruba introduces new data center solutions that help simplify IT operations, accelerate service delivery, and streamline IT environment deployment.
- Orchestration software for Aruba CX switches: Provides a cloud-like operating experience in data center edge environments to provide services quickly and easily.
- Various Aruba CX switch models: A flexible and suitable cloud-native switch model from edge environments to traditional data center areas.
- Pre-engineered HPE and partner solutions: Integrate computing (server), storage, and network infrastructure to reduce the time, risk, and cost required to build a new data center environment.
Okay, so let's take a look at each one.
Software-defined automation and orchestration tools
Aruba Fabric Composer software orchestrates individual switches within a fabric as a single entity, simplifying everything from routine operations to troubleshooting.
Aruba Fabric Composer works seamlessly with Aruba CX switches.
Designed for fabric provisioning and application performance optimization across diverse virtualization environments, Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) solutions, and HPE compute and storage environments.
These innovative solutions are ideal for IT operators and administrators struggling with manual, closed IT service provisioning environments across their infrastructure, from computing systems to virtualization solutions, storage, and networking.
Even IT operators without specialized network knowledge (such as server or VM administrators) can now provision and manage network fabric operations from a single console, providing a powerful and streamlined operational model unlike anything seen before.
Flexible, integrated connectivity across new edge use cases.
Aruba updates its CX switching portfolio for data center environments.
Aruba's powerful Cloud-native AOS-CX operating systemAruba CX switches based on the , include the Network Analytics Engine (NAE), which analyzes events on the switch without additional licensing costs. It also includes advanced data center features.
In collaboration with Pensando, we offer a powerful distributed service switching model: CX 10000 switchhas already been introduced once.
In addition to the CX 10000 switch, there are additional updates for the CX 8360 switch.
The CX 8360 is an innovative solution for extending a unified, cloud-managed infrastructure and operational model across campus environments, branch offices, and existing and new data centers.
The v2, an updated version of the existing CX 8360v1 switch, features an improved version of the 7th-generation ASIC, a next-generation chipset. Furthermore, the 48XT4C model supports SmartRate, a multi-gigabit feature. Additionally, a pair of 25GbE ports can be aggregated into a single 50GbE port. Compared to the v1 model, it offers significantly higher throughput and table capacity.
Available in six models, the Aruba CX 8360v2 Switch Series offers high-performance 1G/10G/25G/40G/100GbE switch ports. It can satisfy everything from high-performance leaf-spine data center environments to edge data centers requiring fewer ports and lower-cost switches.
- 12P 40/100GbE
- 32P 10/25GbE + 4P 40/100GbE (with MACSec)
- 48P 10/25GbE + 6P 40/100GbE (with MACSec)
- 16P 10/25GbE + 2P 40/100GbE
- 48P 1G/10G BASE-T + 4P 40/100GbE
- 24P 1G/10GbE + 2P 40/100GbE
Fully integrated IT stack
Aruba offers HPE GreenLake's hybrid cloud and IaaS to support customer workloads ranging from edge environments to colocation, on-premises environments in data centers, and pay-as-you-go. This provides Aruba with a significant competitive advantage over traditional network-only vendors.
Aruba networking technology underpins new GreenLake service offerings, including VM-as-a-Service, Container-as-a-Service, and SAP HANA-as-a-Service.
“Customers who have implemented HPE GreenLake have been able to reduce deployment time by up to 75% for complex global IT projects.”
A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, The Total Economic Impact™ of HPE GreenLake, June 2020
In addition to these cloud and as-a-service options, you can also leverage pre-engineered and tested integrated configurations from HPE and Aruba for traditional on-premises and customer-managed environments. These IT data center solutions help simplify and accelerate IT service delivery, while reducing the time, risk, and expertise required to deploy complex solutions.
These new IT integrations span a broad range of servers, storage, HCI, and HPC, including HPE's ProLiant DL and DX servers, HPE Apollo servers, HPE SimpliVity, HPE Nimble Storage dHCI, HPE Synergy, and HPE Flex Superdome, as well as virtualization and cloud offerings from partner solutions like Nutanix, SAP HANA, and VMware.
Accelerating digital transformation
Innovation, progress, and out-of-the-box thinking will drive the transition from legacy deployment and operational models to a new edge-to-cloud architecture. And this new architecture will enable interconnected, data-centric (Center of Data) will support next-generation applications and produce improved business outcomes.
