SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Aruba CX
Switching
A MODERN,
CLOUD-NATIVE
PORTFOLIO
SPANNING
FROM THE EDGE
ACCESS TO DATA
CENTER
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
ARUBA CX SWITCHING

The growing use of IoT, the demand for cloud-based services,

and business critical mobility are crushing legacy networks.
THE ARUBA CX ADVANTAGE
Today’s enterprise network must be able to quickly, safely
• A single OS for simplicity
connect new devices and users, and scale to handle the
A consistent operator experience, simplified
massive data generated at the network edge while providing
network design, and unified management from
always-on performance that delights users and helps
edge access to data center.
accelerate business. Critically, the network must also reduce
• Unified management
complexity with smart, automated insights to help IT more
Cloud-based and on-premises management
efficiently operate, manage, and secure the network.
with intuitive workflows and unified views of
devices and clients for powerful network visibility,
Aruba’s CX switching portfolio is purpose-built analytics, and control.
to meet these challenges, satisfying the most • Intelligent automation
Smoothly, safely, and quickly coordinate
demanding use cases from the access layer to
provisioning and changes using smart automation
the core, and to the data center.
to validate and deploy error-free configurations
and reduce manual tasks.
As part of Aruba’s Edge Services Platform (ESP), Aruba CX • Faster troubleshooting
switches play a foundational role in the Unified Infrastructure. Real-time, network-wide visibility via distributed,
Automation, embedded analytics, high availability, and secure embedded analytics to help prevent, detect,
segmentation are designed into CX switches with Aruba and fix issues before operations and users are
Central delivering a unified, single view of the network that impacted.
maximizes operational efficiency across enterprise networks. • Always-on performance
Cutting-edge hardware and powerful AOS-CX
Built on cloud-native principles, the CX switch portfolio gives
operating system deliver high availability during
IT the flexibility to deploy a single switch operating system
live upgrades for the best user experience
from edge access to the data center that supports intuitive
possible.
management tools, smart automation, and distributed
• Dynamic Segmentation
analytics that transform the IT network operator experience.
Unified role-based access and policy enforcement
All with the lasting value and simplified ownership with no
across wired, wireless, and WAN networks of all
switch software licensing and industry leading warranties
sizes.
so you can confidently create a network foundation for the
future.
Limited control and visibility
NETWORK CHALLENGES Quickly determining the root cause of an application or
Operational complexity network slowdown is challenging. Existing network analytic
Dealing with disparate network operating systems, tools, typically performed by external devices running
oversubscribed hardware, and complex software licensing separately purchased software, provide fragmented data
overburdens resource-constrained IT teams. The increasing with limited actionable insights. High network traffic volumes
number of IoT devices connecting to the network bring new and mission critical network access puts growing pressure on
security concerns, which raises the importance for better IT teams to diagnosis and resolve issues instantly.
visibility into what’s running on the network and an easier
way to segment traffic.
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
ARUBA CX SWITCHING

Legacy networks can’t keep pace Based on over 30 years of continuous investment,
The shift to digital has disrupted every portion of the Aruba’s switching ASICs create the basis for unparalleled
network from the edge to the core. As mobile users demand performance, innovative software feature advancements,
high-performance video, voice, and cloud applications and deep network visibility. These programmable ASICs,
to better collaborate, conduct business, and learn, the now in the 7th generation, are purpose-built for a tighter
amount of data crossing enterprise networks is increasing integration of switch hardware and software in campus and
exponentially. Aging networks are inhibited by closed system data center architectures to maximize network performance
architectures with highly manual, hard-coded configs that and bring new innovations to life more quickly.
restrict the adoption of new technologies needed to support Flexible ASIC resources deliver benefits such as high-performance
time-sensitive networking services and 24 x 7 access. Virtual Output Queuing (VOQ) which optimizes the use of all
switch ports by preventing head-of-line blocking, allowing
ARUBA’S CX SWITCHING SOLUTION Aruba Network Analytics Engine (NAE) to inspect all data for
Aruba simplifies the complexities of managing today’s networks improved troubleshooting and analytics.
with AI-powered automation and policy-driven segmentation.
By combining a modern, fully programmable network
Built from the ground up with a combination of cutting-edge
operating system with NAE, Aruba switches provide
hardware and powerful AOS-CX operating system, our family of
industry-leading monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities
switches are designed for today’s most demanding enterprise
across the network. Deep visibility with contextual analytics
campus, branch, and data center networks.
helps simplify network operations, reduces network
complexity, and enables faster response times.

FEATURES BUILT FOR ENTERPRISE NETWORKS

Carrier-class Automated Built-in Monitoring

High Availability Configuration and Diagnostics

ARUBA CX

Dynamic One-touch Programmability

Segmentation Deployment

figure 1.0_100319_cxswitchingportfolio-soa
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
ARUBA CX SWITCHING

Single OS for edge access to data center A built-in Time Series Database (TSDB) stores configuration
Aruba’s AOS-CX is a modern, database-driven network switch and operational state data, making it available to network
operating system that delivers automation, distributed operators to quickly triage and resolve problems. This
analytics, security, and high availability to campus, branch, data may also be used to analyze historical trends, identify
and data center networks. It is built with a microservices anomalies, and predict future problems due to scale, security,
architecture to automate and simplify IT operations and and performance bottlenecks.
scales from entry level access to high availability data Aruba Central uses NAE and agents to deliver switch
center switching. By eliminating siloes of separate switch monitoring, analytics, and enhanced troubleshooting for
architectures for different deployments such as branch wired assurance. Aruba NetEdit and third-party tools such
office and campus, AOS-CX helps eliminate complexity with as ServiceNow and Slack provide the intelligence to integrate
a consistent operator experience, simplified network design, NAE alerts into IT service management processes, speeding
and unified management across the entire network. problem resolution.

Unified, AI-powered management Automated config validation and rollouts

Aruba Central is an AI-powered solution that simplifies The Aruba CX switching portfolio empowers IT teams to
IT operations, improves agility, and reduces costs by orchestrate multiple switch configuration changes for
unifying management of all network infrastructure. Built for smooth, end-to-end service rollouts. Using Aruba Central’s
enterprise-grade resiliency and security, while simple enough multiedit mode or standalone Aruba NetEdit, CX switches
for smaller businesses with limited IT staff, Aruba Central is support automation that allows for safe, rapid network-wide
your single point of visibility and control that spans the entire changes and ensures policy conformance post network
network—from branch to data center, wired and wireless LAN updates. Intelligent capabilities include search, edit, validation
to WAN. Available as a cloud-based or on-premises solution, (including conformance checking), deployment, and audit
Aruba Central is designed to simplify day zero through day features. Tight integration with NAE means powerful
two operations with streamlined workflows for tasks such monitoring and troubleshooting analytics from across the
as virtual switch stack creation, automated monitoring using network can be quickly visualized, analyzed, and acted on.
AI-powered insights and NAE, as well as a unified view of all
devices and users, both wired and wireless. Comprehensive Software-defined orchestration for data center networks
switch management capabilities include configuration, Aruba Fabric Composer is an intelligent, API-driven, software
onboarding, monitoring, troubleshooting, and reporting. defined orchestration solution that simplifies and accelerates
leaf-spine network provisioning and day-to-day operations
Built-in monitoring and diagnostics
across rack-scale compute and storage infrastructure. This
Aruba Network Analytics Engine (NAE) provides real-time, solution is fully infrastructure and application aware providing
network-wide insights to swiftly detect, prioritize, and automation of various configuration and lifecycle events, and
troubleshoot issues as the occur. Rules-based, real-time can uniquely orchestrate a discrete set of switches as a single
monitoring and intelligent notifications automatically correlate networking fabric which significantly simplifies operations and
to configuration changes to help accelerate diagnostic troubleshooting.
routines and resolve issues before users and business are
impacted. Using advanced telemetry and automation built
into select Aruba CX switches, network operators can quickly
identify and troubleshoot a network, the system, application,
and security-related issues, using python and CLI-based
agents and REST APIs.
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
ARUBA CX SWITCHING

High availability Role-based micro-segmentation delivers benefits of reduced

High availability is a must-have requirement at the core and subnet and VLAN sprawl, simplified policy definition, and
aggregation layers of campus networks, as well as within leaf- scalable policy enforcement by introducing the concept of
spine architectures in data centers. Requirements for client user roles. Independent of network constructs such
24 x 7 network availability leave no windows for upgrades as VLANs and VRFs, clients can be grouped into a user
and important configuration changes. Aruba Virtual role based on their identity, allowing the colorless ports
Switching Extension (VSX) has been designed from the technology to be extended to the centralized overlay fabric,
ground up to deliver the availability, virtualization, and as clients are on-boarded with automatic tunnel creation
simplicity requirements for a non-stop, carrier-class network. based on the associated user roles policy. The user roles
With unique control plane synchronization for multi-chassis policy offers the choice between micro-segmentation using
high availability and an architecture that’s redundant in both centralized and unified policy enforcement for wireless
hardware and software, Aruba VSX Live Upgrade offers a and wired traffic with Layer 7 stateful firewall on gateways
better way to ensure business success with a network that is or a distributed approach with a Layer 4 role-role ACL on
always available, even during software upgrades. switches.

Dynamic Segmentation provides scale and flexibility in

Distributed Services Switching
network design by allowing the stretching of VLANs and
The new Aruba CX 10000 distributes advanced services
subnets across the entire network with an EVPN/VXLAN-
to the data center edge, with unified network and security
based distributed overlay fabric. Fabric overlays use VXLAN
automation and policy. It allows operators to extend industry
or VXLAN-GBP tunnels on the data plane and provide the
standard leaf-spine networking with 800G of distributed
option of a Multi-Protocol BGP EVPN control plane for large
micro-segmentation, east-west firewalling, NAT, encryption,
deployments, or a static Layer 2 control plane for simplified
and telemetry services—delivered inline, across every port,
deployments.
closer to critical enterprise applications.
Overlay-based automation
ARUBA DYNAMIC SEGMENTATION Extending Aruba’s Dynamic Segmentation capabilities, Aruba
Campus and branch fabric Central NetConductor delivers cloud-native connectivity and
The Aruba Dynamic Segmentation solution enables security services designed to accelerate and simplify the
seamless mobility, consistent policy enforcement, and provisioning of network configuration and role-based access
automated configurations for wired and wireless clients control across large, distributed networks. To eliminate the
across networks of all sizes. It unifies role-based access complex and highly manual tasks of creating and setting
and policy enforcement across LAN, WLAN, and SD-WAN security policies and configuration required to properly route
networks with centralized policy definition and dedicated and securely segment enterprise-wide network traffic, the
enforcement points, ensuring that users and devices can only Central NetConductor policy manager facilitates identity-
communicate with destinations consistent with their role - based access control with a simple business-logic interface
keeping traffic secure and separate. Dynamic Segmentation and workflow that defines user and device groups and
is based on establishing least privilege access to IT resources creates the associated access enforcement rules for the
by segmenting traffic based on identity, a fundamental physical network.
concept of both Zero Trust and SASE frameworks where trust Aruba CX switches* supported by Central NetConductor
is based on roles and policies, not on where and how a user provide in-line policy enforcement via role-based policy
or device connects. information contained in the group policy identifier (GPID),
This innovation begins with colorless ports and role- eliminating the need to send traffic outside its optimal
based micro-segmentation technologies. Colorless ports path for security inspection. GPIDs are interpreted in-line
allow wired clients to connect to any switch port, with the by Central NetConductor-capable switches and gateways
configuration automated using RADIUS-based access control. with precision traffic segmentation enforced based on
This eliminates the need for manual on-boarding of clients, the assigned role and its real-time destination and access
including IoT devices, onto the network. privileges.
*
Switches supported at first release include the Aruba CX 6300, CX 6400, CX 8325, CX 8360 using Central 2.5.6 and AOS-CX 10.10.
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
ARUBA CX SWITCHING

To simplify configuration and automate deployment of CUSTOMER FIRST CUSTOMER LAST SUPPORT
the fabric overlay, the Central NetConductor fabric wizard When your network is important to your business, then your
facilitates the definition of the VXLAN fabric overlay with an business needs the backing of Aruba Support Services.
intuitive, graphical UI. This wizard automates and simplifies Partner with Aruba product experts to increase your team
the setup of supported switches and gateways by generating productivity, keep pace with technology advances and
and distributing configuration instructions for routing and software releases and obtaining break-fix support. Our
access privileges defined in the GPID. Foundation Care for Aruba support services include priority
Based on widely adopted protocols such as EVPN/VXLAN access to Aruba Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers
and created to scale across disparate network topologies and 24x7x365, flexible hardware and onsite support options and
geographically dispersed locations, a Central NetConductor- total coverage for Aruba products.
capable infrastructure can co-exist alongside current
network management and security services without NETWORK MIGRATION SERVICES
requiring a rip and replace of the installed infrastructure. This Aruba offers industry-leading global high touch Professional
intelligent distributed overlay fabric enables organizations to Network Services for network design, installation and
protect their investments by modernizing at their own pace enablement services. Work with our team of Aruba experts
and can be consumed either as-a-service through Aruba and partners that have in-depth technical know-how to
Central or on-premises through Aruba Central on Premises accelerate and simplify your migration to AOS-CX.
(CoP).
BECOME AN EXPERT ON CX
SWITCHES FOR ANY ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENT Aruba Education Services offers comprehensive training and
Data center, campus, and branch certification programs from fundamental to advanced levels

From small to large enterprise environments, Aruba’s to give you the skills to fully utilize the power of AOS-CX.

comprehensive portfolio includes solutions ideal for access,

aggregation, core, and data center deployments. The power TO LEARN MORE
of the Aruba CX switching portfolio provides a choice of fixed https://www.arubanetworks.com/products/switches/
ports or modular chassis with non-blocking speeds from 1GbE
to 100GbE. This gives you the flexibility to start with a low
port count and scale to full-density switches—all with built-in
automation and analytics – as your business requires.

Features include high availability platforms with redundant

management, fabric, power, and fans and high‑density
industry-standard high power 60W Class 6 and HPE Smart Rate
multi‑gigabit ports. Designed to handle extreme temperatures,
the ruggedized switch series is ready to extend your enterprise
network beyond the office to challenging, harsh environmental
spaces.

© Copyright 2022 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett
Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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Contact us at www.arubanetworks.com/contact