* Aruba extends its 'grid' architecture
It’s always been a challenge in the networking industry to figure out where one discipline leaves off and another begins.
Even in the wireless LAN biz, it’s becoming apparent that the lines of demarcation aren’t distinctly drawn. For example, it’s not entirely clear who should be delivering certain security capabilities to enterprises. Many players, from carriers to traditional firewall companies and software vendors and now wireless vendors are getting into the act.
Aruba Wireless last week said it would address traditional enterprise-wide security, including endpoint security, with an extension to its “grid” architecture, which allows access points to be plugged into existing Ethernet ports and leverage the current cabling infrastructure.
The framework places an Aruba 6000 security controller and a policy engine in the data center and $100-$200 Aruba 2E grid points throughout the organization. The idea is to protect the corporate network from infections mobile devices might pick up from the Internet when they are remote.
When those mobile devices re-associate to the corporate network – either via a WLAN or by plugging into a wired Ethernet port – they usually circumvent the firewalls and intrusion protection systems in the corporate data center guarding the Internet perimeter.
The grid points, says Aruba, are intended to avoid the need to replicate very expensive security systems in all the wiring closets throughout the enterprise. Rather, the inexpensive grid points collect and tunnel wired user traffic to the controllers in the data center for policy enforcement.
The WLAN switch start-up has partnered with security heavyweights Fortinet and Sygate to protect the LAN perimeter from viruses and worms via a special interface. A Fortinet firewall can run next to the grid controller to filter for malware; a Sygate agent can be placed on user laptops and gain software updates and remediation via the policy engine upon reconnection, says Jon Green, director of technical marketing at Aruba.
Security isn’t the only place where traditional lines are blurring. As cost-conscious branch-office considerations heat up, the trend to collapse wireless, wired and WAN functions into all-in-one devices are turning WLAN and WAN access router vendors into competitors. More on this next time.
