UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DEPLOYS MASSIVE ARUBA WLAN FOR CAMPUS-WIDE MOBILE NETWORKING
Aruba Selected for University-Wide, Centrally Managed Mobility Service with Consistent Role-Based Access Controls
Sunnyvale, Calif. October 30, 2006 -Aruba Networks, the Mobile Edge company, today announced that the University of Washington—one of the oldest state-supported institutions of higher education on the Pacific coast—has completed the first phase of its three-year project to deploy ubiquitous mobile access across its Seattle campus. To date, the university has deployed fourteen Aruba 6000 mobility controllers and over 2,000 Aruba AP-70 access points (APs). The Aruba Mobile Edge wireless network, expected to be completed in the summer of 2008, will provide seamless mobility for 39,251 students and 27,600 faculty and staff across the entire Seattle campus, which comprises 218 buildings on 643 acres.
Prior to deploying the Aruba solution, the university's many different departments were installing their own wireless networks around the campus - all of which were independent networks without any connection to each other. As a result, problems quickly arose around network performance, security, and support--issues such as interference between networks, rogue AP and wireless intrusion detection, and staff, faculty and students not knowing who to contact when the wireless network broke. The university also had concerns regarding incompatible technologies, inconsistent upgrade and maintenance policies, and lack of integration with the central authentication infrastructure.
Ultimately, the University of Washington decided to deploy a campus-wide, centrally managed mobile network providing pervasive 802.11a/b/g access. Other project goals included consistent security and access control and a solution that enabled a single point-of-contact for customer service. Aruba Networks Mobile Edge solution addresses these and other concerns. Aruba mobility controllers feature an integrated policy enforcement firewall, allowing the University to implement role-based access control, offering access to appropriate resources and applications based on the user's role, such as student, staff or faculty.
"Aruba's unique Mobile Edge architecture has solved the issues we had surrounding inconsistent access policies and incompatible, isolated wireless networks, enabling true campus-wide mobility," stated Scott Mah, assistant vice president of computing and communications service delivery and support at the University of Washington. "The Aruba solution also offers us enterprise-class scalability with the robust security to match--something that is mission-critical for universities."
The University of Washington also has a number of older buildings for which it was infeasible to provide wired access in all areas. This represented an enormous problem, as laptops are becoming a requirement for students, and the School of Medicine is now administering tests electronically. These buildings needed to be connected to the new network. Since deploying Aruba's Mobile Edge, the University of Washington has provided wireless network access to these older academic and administration buildings, allowing professors to utilize new technology in settings where it would be impossible with wired technology. The University of Washington is in the process of piloting VoIP over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) in the Police Department building.
"With over 10,000 deployments throughout North America, we are very experienced in dealing with the issues related to large, complex deployments of converged solutions that include the WAN, LAN, mobility and voice," said Dave Koshak, director of Sales for Service Communications, Inc., Aruba's channel partner for the University of Washington installation. "Universities are particularly sensitive to these issues, as for them, mobility is a competitive differentiator. In these instances, Aruba's products have time and again proven to have the perfect combination of price, feature set and performance."
"The deployment of the Aruba mobile network has been a very satisfying project to work on, as it is bringing the university a technology that they need in order to compete," concludes Mah. "The mobility afforded by the wireless network has really enhanced the educational and instructional environment, and most importantly, it has eradicated the burden on administrators."
About University of Washington
Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the foremost institutions of higher education in the nation, richly combining its research, instructional and public service missions. Its internationally acclaimed faculty includes six Nobel Laureates and the winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Fiction. Washington is part of an elite group of research universities whose contributions to American life are unique because they generate the basic knowledge upon which practical innovations are based. For more than 35 years, the university has been among the country's top five institutions in the dollar value of federal research grants and contracts awarded to its faculty. Total grant and contract activity for 2004 exceeded $950 million. About 75 percent of the university's grant and contract funds come from federal agencies. Research contributes directly to the educational goals of graduate and professional students, as well as to those of undergraduates. To learn more, visit the University of Washington at www.washington.edu
About Aruba Networks
Aruba Networks is a fast-growing enterprise infrastructure company enabling the Mobile Edge, an evolutionary network architecture that represents a new approach to transitioning enterprise networks from a fixed, port-based architecture to an architecture centered on secure, identity-based mobility. The Mobile Edge simultaneously delivers mobile data and VoIP services, as well as a common user experience to mobile workers in the office, at home and on the road, by creating a secure mobility overlay that spans the LAN, the WAN and the Internet. To deliver the Mobile Edge, Aruba manufactures and markets a complete line of fixed and modular mobility controllers, wired and wireless access points, an advanced mobility software suite, and a mobility management system. Privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California, Aruba has operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and employs staff around the world. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
Media Contacts
Don Reckles
Aruba Networks, Inc.
408-329-5108
dreckles@arubanetworks.com
Jay Nichols
Sterling Communications, Inc.
415-392-2300
jnichols@sterlingpr.com
Colleen E. Butler
University of Washington
206-616-1645
butlerce@cac.washington.edu
Aruba Networks and Aruba The Mobile Edge Company are trademarks of Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Portions © 2006 Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.