Aruba to target mobile edge

Aruba Networks today unveiled a new strategy and accompanying product line focused on bringing WLAN technologies to the far reaches of the enterprise edge--mobile workers and telecommuters who normally would not have access to the enterprise LAN. Aruba’s investors capped off the announcement with another $25 million in Series D financing, giving the company additional funds as it takes on industry heavyweights like Cisco.

Aruba today announced two new access points targeting remote locations. The first, the AP-41, is a low-cost access point targeting telecommuters, while the second, the AP-65 is a highly portable access point designed to allow mobile workers on the road to create a secure hot spot with any broadband connection.

Aruba, normally a company focused on the growing WLAN switch market, said the new products are indicative of the new strategy the company is taking. It’s seeking to push wireless technologies beyond the corporate HQ into every employee niche in the company--a strategy it calls the Mobile Edge. Over the last year Aruba has been releasing scaled-down versions of its WLAN switch products for branch offices and remote offices, but now it wants to push further out, allowing companies to extend their LAN capabilities anywhere in the world, said Keerti Melkote, Aruba’s co-founder and vice president of product management and marketing.

“Mobility is becoming a big factor for businesses,” Melkote said. “The WLAN will eventually replace the LAN switch entirely, resulting in a much larger network. The mobile edge of the network is much wider than the wired edge.”

The new access points won’t be independent solutions. They will be extensions of the corporate WLAN network, controlled via a VPN over the public Internet. Ultimately the access points will be controlled by an Aruba switch back in the enterprise HQ or branch office, just like on-site access points. The Aruba mobility controller will authenticate and manage users over the access points.

Melkote said the new strategy is designed to reposition Aruba against the ever-growing list of competitors in the WLAN switch market. With Cisco’s acquisition of Airespace and Motorola’s recent investment in Trapeze, Aruba’s status as an independent privately held company could be a hindrance. Aruba’s $25 million funding round comes from its existing equity investors Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Trinity Ventures and WK Technology Funds and doesn’t include a technology vendor with broad sales channels like those controlled by Cisco. Aruba certainly hasn’t done badly as an independent, though. Recently it was awarded the contract to supply the WLAN switches for Microsoft’s corporate campuses in Redmond, Wash., one of the single largest enterprise WLAN networks in the world.

But Melkote said it has to remain innovative to remain competitive, hence its attempts to be a first-mover in new product areas.

“Cisco’s strength is its distribution--Cisco is everywhere,” Melkote said. “We have to stay ahead of the curve, and what we’re announcing today keeps us ahead of that curve.”