AirWave 7 Wireless Management Platform Bolsters Mobile Support

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/13/10

Aruba Networks has gone public with details about the next version of its AirWave wireless management platform, including increased functionality to manage mobile devices on a wireless network. The next release is expected in March 2010.

"The requirements and expectations of the mobile worker, and the tools used by him or her, are now the same as for the wired worker in terms of reliability, latency, predictability, and availability of real-time data," said Abner Germanow, IDC's director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure. "As [wireless LAN] deployments attain levels of reliability and control that rival wired networks, IDC expects a broader set of applications to be driven to wireless networks. Wireless performance then becomes mission-critical, and IT organizations need to assume control over all of the components that drive service quality, including wired infrastructure and client devices."

The new release will incorporate several new features, according to the company, including:

• A Mobile Device Manager (MDM) module will help administrators manage non-traditional nodes, including handheld devices, self-service kiosks, and wireless printers;
• Wired infrastructure management: The AirWave Management Platform will manage edge switches from Cisco and HP to provide integrated wired and wireless management;
• An open standards XML API will simplify the development work of integrating AirWave 7 with the rest of the IT operations infrastructure; and
• A customizable user interface and dashboards will allow network administrators to create custom views for specific user roles. Users will be able to create and save custom reports and incorporate report components in their personalized dashboards.

The new release will be delivered as software, as an appliance, and through a software-as-a-service model.