* Software giant shifts to next-gen Aruba Wi-Fi net
Microsoft, which has long operated one of the largest enterprise Wi-Fi installations in the world, has committed to an entirely new wireless LAN infrastructure, which it will begin deploying this month.
Microsoft, which has long operated one of the largest enterprise Wi-Fi installations in the world, has committed to an entirely new wireless LAN infrastructure, which it will begin deploying this month.
The software behemoth will move some 25,000 simultaneous users and 100,000 devices, which span more than 60 countries, 277 buildings and 17 million square feet, off its aging Cisco Aironet infrastructure and onto an Aruba Networks Wi-Fi net. The revamped network will comprise 5,000 to 6,000 thin APs and about 100 Aruba switch/controllers, according to Aruba officials.
The driver behind the multimillion-dollar deal?
“Microsoft has said it needed to improve performance per user, address security in a more integrated way, and improve scalability,” says Don LeBeau, Aruba president and CEO. He also notes that Microsoft will run Longhorn, the newest and security-centric version of Microsoft Windows, on its own internal Wi-Fi network before bringing it to market.
Microsoft has been shopping for a replacement infrastructure for approximately the past year. At about that time, it deployed Aruba’s air monitors and RF Director software as a global sensor overlay to its Cisco network to detect rogue access points for security purposes.
“Our sensors became part of Microsoft’s drive for looking at next-generation technology,” asserts LeBeau. “They found that they could operate round-the-world security but manage it from just a few centralized switches [at Microsoft headquarters].”
Microsoft began building its original WLAN using equipment from Aironet Wireless Communications (which was subsequently acquired by Cisco) in 1999, long before sophisticated RF tools and centralized provisioning, management and security platforms hit the market. It wound up building its own management architecture, a process that took about four months but allowed the company to operate its worldwide WLAN with a very small staff (see newsletter, “Microsoft supports 4,500-AP WLAN with five people,” http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/wireless/2004/0322wireless1.html).
The next-generation WLAN architecture should allow Microsoft to reduce, by two orders of magnitude, the number of managed Wi-Fi devices, because only the switch/controller devices require management, not thousands of APs.
Microsoft selected the Aruba platform after a technical evaluation that put Aruba and competing products through testing performed by independent laboratories, including Iometrix in San Francisco and the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Lab.
Microsoft was unavailable for comment at press time.
