GITEX 2018: Why Digital Transformation Starts with the Network

Manish Bhardwaj, Snr. Marketing Manager, META, Aruba
Manish Bhardwaj, Snr. Marketing Manager, META, Aruba
6 years ago

AI, Blockchain, Smart Workplaces, and Future Transportation will be the key buzzwords at GITEX with annual spending on digital transformation (DX) initiatives in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) set to top $38 billion by 2021, according to IDC. But how is digital transformation really achieved?

As businesses around the world continue to transform their offerings to better enable their employees and serve their customers, networks must be ready to adapt for the future. It’s not just about adding tech, but creating a framework for it all to work together. With this in mind, Aruba will be demonstrating its Mobile First architecture, a next-generation networking architecture for the software-defined enterprise, designed to deliver a network that is open, secure, and autonomous.

The Mobile First Architecture is purpose-built for the digital era and enables enterprises to rapidly innovate and transform their networks so that businesses can deliver amazing experiences and simplify IT. It provides a secure, intelligent, non-stop networking experience on a single, open, software-defined architecture that extends from data center to branch environments for a consistent IT experience across the entire enterprise. This architecture is differentiated by the following characteristics which can be seen live at the show:

Secure — Security has become top of mind. People connecting to the corporate network over wireless networks pose potential security risks. As more of these network-connected devices come online, the complex task of quickly identifying them and authenticating their roles becomes vital to a safe network. Aruba’s unique dynamic segmentation feature helps solve this security problem in a way that both simplifies management for IT and provides a more consistent user/device experience regardless of device type or where it is being connected.

Intelligent — We all sell software but the difference is in the intelligence layer. It’s about what intelligence we are giving our customers. At the heart of our architecture is a contextual intelligence that we can create about real-time situations that are happening inside the enterprise. This helps recognize patterns that lead to better strategic decision making.

Mobile First — Our network approach is optimized for today’s world where the majority of users, devices, and IoT are connected via Wi-Fi. Aruba delivers secure, non-stop wireless experiences and allows IT to right-size the network. We believe the network needs to be simplified and that there should be fewer network devices and wired ports. No wired phones, no docking stations− everything is wireless.

Open — Gone are the days, when vendors would be able to push their biggest customers to adopt the one-stop-shop approach for all of their networking needs. The reality is that today, all vendors need to accept this and continue to collaborate on things like open standards. At Aruba, our solutions are built on open standards and offer easy-to-use open APIs that allow them to be integrated into even the most complex multi-vendor environments with the simplicity that our customers have come to expect and love.