Aruba delivers networking tools via the cloud

Networking firm Aruba has unveiled a series of cloud-based services which it claims can provide better content delivery and security for small branch offices and home workers.

The Virtual Branch Network 2.0 suite is designed to offer application acceleration, content delivery network and content security services through Aruba's partners using a cloud-based system.

Roger Hockaday, director of marketing at Aruba, claimed that this approach offers the best way of accessing stored content, accelerating applications and protecting against data breaches without having to replicate traditional large-office infrastructures.

"Old network systems are not good enough to manage and maintain networks in branch offices or in the home. We have moved on in the way we do business, and need different set-ups to large offices," he said.

The acceleration software is designed for various applications commonly used in branch offices, including Microsoft Exchange, web browsers and file-sharing solutions.

Hockaday explained that users are sending and downloading data via the internet more than ever, and that it makes more sense for the services that monitor and maintain this information to be hosted online as well.

"Monitoring traffic and information being sent and received is vital for firms, but running everything back through to the company's headquarters is not feasible. Therefore the content security system runs on a cloud-based platform run by a partner firm," he said.

The new services are offered through Aruba's remote access point technology, meaning that a licence is needed only for each box rather than each service.

"By buying the licence with the box, a small branch office can purchase a single box with a licence for the applications it uses, rather than having to buy a licence for each product on every separate machine," said Hockaday.

The new services are available in a variety of bundled packages, including Standard, Advanced and Premium, and will be available during April, although no specific dates have been announced.

The application acceleration services will cost £300 (A$492) for each remote access point connection, while the standard content security package will cost £50 (A$82.03) per user per year. No specific pricing on the content delivery network service is available.

Aruba said that the services will be available in increments of 100 and 1,000 users on one- to three-year subscriptions.