Everything You Need to Know About Aruba Central 2.5.5

Everything You Need to Know About Aruba Central 2.5.5

Everything You Need to Know About Aruba Central 2.5.5

In the past, we’ve explored the opportunities made available through the adoption of a cloud-like consumption and management model whilst maintaining on-premise infrastructure. Such a system enables businesses to enjoy the flexibility of cloud with the security and resilience of on-premise. This carefully orchestrated hybrid can be achieved through Greenlake.

A key feature of Greenlake is the provision of a unified platform for viewing and managing compute, storage, and networking infrastructure from HPE and Aruba. Aruba Central’s recently launched SaaS subscription model (2.5.5) is a significant development in cloud-based management solutions, and businesses don’t need to be a Greenlake customer to benefit.

What is Aruba Central?

Aruba Central is a cloud-native management console for all Aruba network infrastructure. As the single point of visibility and control for Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), Aruba Central delivers AIOps, workflow automation, and advanced security features to unify operations across campuses, branches, data centres, and remote work environments. Aruba Central is built with enterprise-grade resiliency and security, while simple enough for small businesses to manage with limited IT staff. The single-pane-of-glass system saves time and reduces the training that IT teams need to effectively use the solution.

What does Aruba Central 2.5.5 Deliver?

  • Higher IT efficiency with a single place to view and manage network infrastructure alongside HPE data and compute services.
  • Tighter security via the HPE GreenLake single sign-on and embedded audit trail.
  • Improved cost controls with consumption analytics across all infrastructure to help optimise spend and ensure investments are used as intended.
  • A better IT experience through a more responsive Aruba Central user interface.

The new Aruba Central SaaS subscription model provides more flexibility and choice when consuming Aruba Central licenses and its network management capabilities. The SaaS subscription model includes the following features for the Aruba Central Foundation and Advanced Licenses:

1. Co-Termination of Licenses

Aruba Central allows customers to align license expiry to a common end date, thereby helping them to better manage device renewals and inventories. Co-termination of licenses is ideal for customers who:

  • Have staggered purchases of device subscriptions across multiple dates
  • Want to avoid processing multiple renewal notices manually, to save on administrative and procurement time
  • Are looking to renew licenses or buy additional licenses.

2. Delayed Activation

Device licenses can be activated up to 90 days after purchase, thereby assisting with the alignment of licenses with new deployments or expansions. If a business doesn’t activate their licenses until 90 days after purchase, all the license keys will be activated automatically on the 91st day.

For example, a business buys 100 AP license keys and adds them to Aruba Central. On the twentieth day, the business onboards 25 APs to Aruba Central and assigns licenses to manage these devices. All 100 AP licenses will be activated on the twentieth day. If the business does not assign any licenses for 90 days, then all the 100 AP licenses will be automatically activated on the 91st day.

3. Tier Upgrades

Users can now upgrade from Foundation to Advanced tier anytime during the contract period, giving users the option of unlocking the additional features available. Tier upgrades can be performed without any new contracts during the contract period, however tiers cannot be downgraded during this time.

4. License Renewals without New Purchase

Businesses can renew all licenses simultaneously with the same license IDs to ensure operational continuity and simplify administrative tasks. An existing contract can also be broken into multiple new contracts to simplify maintenance.

For example, your business may have a license key that is due for renewal, but you prefer to renew the license on the existing contract, rather than create a new contract with a new license key. This is possible in the new subscription model, where you can renew the license with the existing license ID and indicate the new expiration date.

Conclusion

HPE and Aruba’s vision of an edge to cloud world continues to evolve to provide better insights and improve the management of your business’s IT estate. As your IT partner, contact us to discuss how to take advantage of these and other HPE developments to help you meet your business’s vision.

Real-Time Visibility Into Physical Environments Made Simple

Real-Time Visibility Into Physical Environments Made Simple

Real-Time Visibility Into Physical Environments Made Simple

The MT sensor family intelligently monitors any environment to help organisations build a smarter, more sustainable future. With MT sensors, IT, facilities, and operations teams can minimise business disruptions, reduce unnecessary costs, maximise resources, and improve employee/customer experience in any space.

Smart Sensors.
Smarter Businesses

Prepare today for the unseen challenges of tomorrow with environmental data-driven insights.

 ✔ Take control of your future

Stop environmental issues before they start with remote visibility and real-time alerts.

 ✔ See what’s around every corner

Gain complete visibility by combining IoT sensor data with smart camera and Wi-Fi analytics

 ✔ Integrate. Automate. Innovate

Integrate with building management systems to digitally transform your organisation.

Faster Deployments.
Safer Environments.

Scale out visibility to all your locations with a cloud-first platform and make on-premises servers a thing of the past.

  • Manage your sensors and IT network from one dashboard and streamline setup with automatic connectivity through MR and MV gateways
  • Keep your IoT sensors protected with OTA firmware updates, end-to-end encryption, and secure authentication

Your Business. Your Space. Your Way.

Choose from the hundreds of applications in the Meraki partner ecosystem to deliver custom business outcomes for any situation.

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Extract intelligence from your building

Build smart IoT applications in the cloud

Put the operating system for your work in place

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Real-time location intelligence

Next-generation retail analytics

No-code automation platform for Meraki APIs

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Custom tracking, monitoring, and safety solutions

Unrivaled customer insights

A digital manifest of all cleaning activities

Get hands-on with your environmental data.

Discover ways to transform your organisation with Meraki sensors.

No Going Back: How the Pandemic Changed MSPs for Good

No Going Back: How the Pandemic Changed MSPs for Good

No Going Back: How the Pandemic Changed MSPs for Good

Just like not all individuals are cut out for remote work, some industries aren’t suited for it either. But when COVID-19 threw everyone into an in-person lurch, the choice was clear: go digital or bust.

For event planning, hospitality, and travel businesses, a digital-only experience was a particularly difficult ask, though they certainly weren’t the only ones. Across the SMB community, the sudden, unexpected shift to work-from-home environments spiked demand for ​​MSP (managed service provider) support.

The Evolving Enterprise offers this overview of the Traditional MSP model:

“Broadly speaking, an MSP is an outsourced third-party company that manages and assumes the responsibility of a defined set of day-to-day management services to its customers. In terms of IT, this mainly includes networks, applications, infrastructure, and security, via ongoing and regular support and active administration on customers’ premises, external data centres (hosting), or in the public cloud.”

Now that you know what it is, here’s a peek at how the MSP industry has evolved over the pandemic – and what that means for your business.

MSPs have long had remote monitoring and management as a core offering, making them the natural choice for securing data in the WFH environment.


MSPs have long had remote monitoring and management as a core offering, making them the natural choice for securing data in the WFH environment.


WFH the MSP Way

Managed service providers have been making inroads for decades. But it was the rise of remote work that really made MSPs mainstream.

From essentially one day to the next we collectively went from central office to home office, decentralising our networks in the process. MSPs have long had remote monitoring and management as a core offering, making them the natural choice for securing data in the WFH environment. Many SMBs also turned to them to supply devices and software-oriented solutions.

According to ComTIA, “many MSPs are broadening their customer reach and profit margin potential by offering more premium services…things like business applications-as-a-service solutions, data analytics, cloud-based services, more advanced types of cybersecurity, and consulting-level work around compliance and privacy…”

A Proactive Approach to IT

With the increase of cyber threats, reactive IT management practices have quickly fallen out of fashion.

MSPs have historically focused on more routine IT tasks, like flagging unsupported devices or unknown users, resolving data issues, etc. But keeping a remote workforce protected required a new level of dedication.

Proactive MSPs are now dominating the landscape as a result. Whereas cybersecurity used to represent a smaller portion of the typical MSP portfolio, more than 50% now provide it in addition to traditional offerings like networking or help desk services.

The Ransomware Response

All types of cybercrime are on the rise. But one threat in particular has kept MSPs on their toes: Ransomware.

Given how lucrative this attack type is for cybercriminals, it’s no wonder Malware increased by an astounding 358% in a single year.

While ransomware attempts are likely to continue, some governments are taking steps to discourage organisations from facilitating transactions in hopes of deterring future attacks. Industry experts anticipate there may soon be a wave of sanctions against those who accept or disperse ransomware payments.

New Cybersecurity Standards and MSP Regulations

“The very first MSP regulation law was enacted in 2020. Passed by a bipartisan state legislature in Louisiana, the law requires MSPs who service state agencies to register with the Secretary of State,” explains Tech Target.

Regulating bodies in other parts of the world are likely to follow suit as more cybersecurity codes of conduct start to take shape.

The future looks promising for MSPs. Though the last two years have been uncharacteristically busy, their time in the spotlight is far from over. So long as remote and hybrid work models continue to abound, managed services providers are liable to be driving digital business forward, even after the COVID-19 curtain call.

Meraki Virtual MX Appliances for Public and Private Clouds

Meraki Virtual MX Appliances for Public and Private Clouds

Meraki Virtual MX Appliances for Public and Private Clouds

Virtual MX (vMX) is a virtual instance of a Meraki security and SD-WAN appliance dedicated specifically to providing the simple configuration benefits of site-to-site Auto VPN for organisations running or migrating IT services to public or private cloud environments. An Auto VPN tunnel to a vMX is like having a direct Ethernet connection to a private data centre.

Features and Functionality of the vMX Appliance

Features and Functionality of the vMX Appliance

vMX functions like a VPN concentrator and includes SD-WAN functionality like other MX devices. For public cloud environments, a vMX is added via the respective public cloud marketplace and, for private cloud environments, a vMX can be spun up on a Cisco UCS running NFVIS. Setup and management in the Meraki dashboard, just like any other MX.

vMX – Small

vMX – Medium

vMX – Large

Recommended use cases

Extend secure SD-WAN connectivity from branch sites to resources in public and private cloud environments

Interfaces

Virtual

Virtual

Virtual

Supported Cloud Platforms

AWS
Azure
Google Cloud Platform 1
Alibaba Cloud
Cisco NFVIS

AWS
Azure
Google Cloud Platform 1
Alibaba Cloud
Cisco NFVIS

AWS
Google Cloud Platform1
Alibaba Cloud
Cisco NFVIS

Maximum site-to-site VPN Throughput

200 Mbps

500 Mbps

1 Gbps

Maximum Concurrent site-to-site VPN Tunnels

50

250

1,000

Client VPN Support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Experience our technology.

Build your network on the platform designed for how people work.

1Targeted 2HCY 2021

Network Visibility And Clarity With Traffic Analytics

Network Visibility And Clarity With Traffic Analytics

Reliable, fast networks have become ubiquitous, driving innovation, productivity and instant collaboration, supported by the relentless growth of convenient cloud hosted applications. As the use of these apps and services grows, so too does our reliance on every step of the journey, from the application server to the desktop or mobile device.

Even with a powerful, proven network infrastructure like Cisco Meraki, the end-user experience can only be truly optimised by considering all contributing internal and external factors. Fast cloud application response times rely not only on a well-designed, high performance LAN, but also on the performance of the service provider’s infrastructure, the WAN or Internet, and the remote SaaS (software as a service) application itself.

Introducing Meraki Insight

Meraki Insight has been developed to provide end-to-end visibility into how end-users are experiencing the network by taking a more holistic view of the factors contributing to the end-user’s perception of performance.

Faster, better

Busy IT teams benefit from improved insight and a drastic reduction in troubleshooting effort, enabling resources to focus on the true cause of end-user frustration and provide faster, better service. Faster problem resolution gives IT more time to support their organisation’s mission priorities.

Enabled by Meraki MX appliances

Meraki Insight requires a collector to gather the data it uses, and the Meraki MX platform can be easily upgraded to function as a collector. As data flows through LAN and WAN interfaces, deep packet inspection helps IT determine the true root cause with simple visibility into performance at every step.

“Meraki shaves hours from resolving critical issues and allows our support team to do more with less. As a result, our mission-critical applications and our business are more resilient.”

— IT Director, Global Retailer

Try our technology

 

The Reality Behind Manufacturing’s AI Myths

The Reality Behind Manufacturing’s AI Myths

 By Manufacturing.net

One of the oldest and best known technological myths is found in the masterpiece, the Iliad.

In Homer’s poem narrating the Trojan War, the God of metalworking, Hephaestus, engineers one of the first robots known to history, a handmaiden designed to assist him in his forge. Not happy with limiting himself to manufacturing, Hephaestus steps it up by designing Talos, an automated bronze giant whose purpose was to protect ancient Crete from pirates and invaders.

While thousands of years have passed since Hephaestus’ mythical robots came to life, today’s intelligent machines – strong with skilful AI – are making headway in our own workplaces. Take the factories and warehouses adversely affected by the pandemic as an example. With fewer and fewer workers willing and able to assist our manufacturers and fulfilment centres, many are embracing AI and machine learning to automate tasks such as quality control, which are traditionally reliant on scores of human workers.

Despite the vast amount written about AI, this technology is still, in a sense, in its “mythological” era, mostly due to the mismatch between what science fiction portrays AI to be capable of, and what today’s technology does (hint: it does a lot!).

How to Get AI Right (or Wrong)

Every new technology has a learning curve, and AI is no different. While an estimated 80 percent of enterprises claiming to already be using AI in some form, research shows that 91 percent of them envision significant barriers to AI adoption, mainly due to a shortage of AI experts and poor IT infrastructure.

To help illustrate the misconceptions and myths around AI, we will use a hypothetical manufacturer of packaged food, Food Production International (FPI). FPI is a global food manufacturer whose overall goal is to improve production quality and reduce returns/rejects that impact its reputation and bottom line. In addition, FPI is under pressure as it can’t keep up or improve quality control due to a lack of personnel.

After an initial investigation, FPI has launched a corporate-wide initiative aimed at the deployment of AI-powered quality control in its many production sites.

Myth No. 1: I need to go to a university and hire an AI PhD.

The very first challenges FPI will bump into is understanding what AI is, what it can do, and having the personnel to implement it.

U.S. universities graduate around 3,000 PhDs in AI-related fields per year, with a median of 5.8 years to complete a PhD. This makes finding a ready-to go PhD very difficult. This is the first myth to dispel: today, AI PhDs are not needed, neither to get started, nor to get deployed in a final solution.

Software platforms are finally available to simplify complex AI problems, providing the needed integration hooks, hardware flexibility, ease of use by non-experts, and, crucially, a very low-cost entry point to make this technology ubiquitously available to Manufacturers and System Integrators.

Myth No. 2: I need to collect millions of images to even know if using AI is possible.

The second challenge FPI will face is collecting data for training visual AI models for quality control. Neural networks and deep learning architectures rely on deriving a function to map input data to output data… which requires, well … data!

While the effectiveness of this mapping function hinges on both the quality and quantity of the data provided, the first fallacy and myth FPI might fall prey to is that today you need a ton to get started. Platforms exist that enable the use of inexpensive (or free) Proof of Concepts (POCs) with just dozens of images. What’s more important, in some cases these platforms do not even require hard-to-find product images, namely, all you need to do is to collect images of healthy products.

Myth No. 3: The test went great, now what?

If FPI has succeeded in using an off-the-shelf AI platform, collected data, and designed a working Proof of Concept (PoC), they may assume that they’re only steps away from deploying a feasible solution.

But the truth is that AI adoption in a production workflow requires clear success criteria, and a multistep approach. There have been countless setups that fall short of implementation for reasons that have little to do with AI, and much to do with the right planning. A simple benchmark such as, “If the PoC delivers X at Y functionality, then we’ll launch it here and here by this time,” would go a long way in terms of helping enterprises define an actual deployment scenario.

Once a clear ROI is defined, the next step is selecting the right infrastructure – both software, and hardware. One common myth is the need for “centralised, massive AI infrastructure with tons of GPUs” to get AI to work. In reality, small, flexible, cost-effective platforms that solve a very large number of vision inspection problems across multiple use cases do exist. Also, in many cases, AI can run as well in CPUs as GPUs.

Myth No. 4: AI is deployed! I don’t need to touch it ever again!

Because products and processes are constantly evolving, there will never be AI that works off-the-shelf. Rather, FPI will need the ability to build, customise and continuously update AI autonomously, possibly without having to spend thousands of dollars on an expert to come and retrain when something changes.

If successful, FPI will need to pre-emotively grasp the operational conditions that AI requires. It will need to consider retraining costs/time, the skill sets to do it, and the overall AI lifecycle management tools required to make sure an AI project does not become a mess, or worse, ineffective.

What seems like a huge lift in an organisation – embracing a new technology – is today as easy as adopting a consumer-grade software or device that anybody can afford and be familiar with in minutes. As new tools are enabling more organisations to take on AI adoption, this new, ‘myth-free’ AI is leading the fourth industrial revolution.

This article was written from Manufacturing.net and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.