Aruba Networks swept the last remaining vestiges of Cisco’s switching gear from the Pentagon building as part of a Department of Defense modernization effort announced today.
The deal will see Aruba deploy its Edge Services Platform (ESP) architecture to automate the network, eliminating time-consuming and often tedious processes such as port mapping and initial switch configuration. Aruba ESP is targeted at campuses, data centers, branches, and remote workers, but it only supports Aruba’s access points (APs), switches, and SD-WAN gateways.
The vendor’s Access Switches will replace existing Cisco switching gear that has reached the end of life. The deployment will include more than 150,000 wired ports, distributed across the 6.5 million-square-foot facility. Alongside wired infrastructure, the DoD plans to deploy 3,000 additional Aruba APs to further extend wireless access throughout the campus.
While Aruba ESP can be operated in the cloud, on-site, or as a managed service through one of Aruba’s partners, the DoD will be using Aruba’s ClearPass Policy Manager to orchestrate the networking overhaul. Initially, the platform will be used to manage Aruba’s switches to secure access controls across the network. However, Aruba notes that the DoD could extend these controls to its APs, unifying both wired and wireless networks.
About Aruba Networks
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the global leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions that use AI to automate the network while harnessing data to drive powerful business outcomes.
With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) and as-a-service options, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to help customers meet their connectivity, security, and financial requirements across campus, branch, data center, and remote worker environments covering all aspects of wired, wireless LAN, and wide-area networking (WAN).
Learn more about our current Aruba Offerings, connect with us.
