Aruba Debuts Net Management ApplianceAruba Debuts Net Management Appliance

Aruba Networks this week is adding a competitively priced WLAN switch for small businesses and a high-end management appliance for companies with large wireless networks to its Mobile Edge line of products.

The Aruba 200 Mobility Controller is smaller than a notebook PC, includes Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and can support up to six access points and 100 users. It will ship in February and is priced at $1,750, compared to $4,995 for the higher-end Aruba 800 controller, which supports 16 access points and hundreds of simultaneous users.

“Branches are getting smaller and wireless networks are becoming more prevalent, which creates a need for better security-management tools that can also support voice,” said Troy Wendt, director of product marketing at Aruba, Sunnyvale, Calif.

The controller includes quality of service features that can prioritize voice traffic to support the delivery of VoIP over the WLAN.

“The 200 controller makes Aruba competitive for retail, and it should spark interest with clients that have many smaller locations and were previously unable to justify the expense of the 800 controller,” said Paul Black, president of Comm Solutions, a Malvern, Pa.-based solution provider.

Aruba this week is also rolling out its Mobility Management System, an appliance that provides a centralized management system for companies with large networks consisting of hundreds or thousands of access points. In addition to providing a dashboard view of the entire network, the appliance includes RF planning and visualization tools and location tracking capability, Wendt said.

As companies establish more branch and retail locations, there’s a growing need for tools that allow IT staff to manage, troubleshoot and monitor networks from a central location, Wendt said.

The appliance is powered by an Intel Xeon processor and uses RAID storage. It will ship in February and is priced beginning at $21,995, or $3,995 for just the Linux-based management software.