SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that Avanade, the leading digital innovator on the Microsoft ecosystem, has outfitted its new, 67,000 square feet Seattle, Washington office with an Aruba mobile-first network. Aruba’s wireless, security and management solutions, will help Avanade optimize its real-estate and space usage to cut costs, improve productivity, and deliver a better user experience for approximately 800 employees in the new building, as well as those located in the company’s 45 other locations.
In reviewing its key requirements for a new digital workplace that could provide mobile-first flexibility and open collaboration, Avanade turned to Aruba, due to Aruba’s strong partnership with Microsoft, as well as the breadth and strength of the Aruba solutions.
“We want to embrace the future of work and the Aruba infrastructure enables the mobility and performance that will allow us to do that,” said Joseph Paradi, Enterprise Services Executive at Avanade. “Our goal is to be 100% wireless, delivering a service that can fully support users’ Skype and Teams collaboration needs.”
To that end, Avanade deployed Aruba wireless infrastructure across all three floors of its new office, Aruba AirWave for network management, and Aruba ClearPass for wired and wireless Network Access Control and guest access. The company is using ArubaOS 8, which enables Live Upgrades, seamless failover and RF management features, with Mobility Masters in each of its data centers to enable an easy migration for all 45 Avanade offices.
The company’s IT team was particularly impressed with Aruba’s Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) which addresses interference issues that can occur with the multiple mobile devices each employee typically uses.
“We have a dense environment with many laptops, tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices,” noted Doug McKinney, Avanade Network Architect and Group Manager. “The ARM capabilities help us manage all of these devices automatically to ensure great performance for all of our users and each device.”
He added, “We have no network ports or cables at our desks, nor do we have assigned desks or offices. With the Aruba infrastructure, our employees are truly a mobile workforce with the flexibility to conduct their audio and video calls from wherever they are located.”
With the Aruba network in place, Avanade can provide true hot-desking for employees, allowing them to reserve desks, offices and conference rooms through a mobile app. All desks are ergonomic and can be adjusted to meet each employees’ specific needs. Each desk space is equipped with a 34-inch widescreen monitor and cable for both HDMI and Mini DisplayPort, accommodating the variety of workstations employees use.
Noted Avanade Network Program Manager, Greg Paskett, “All of our meeting rooms are set up as Surface hubs or Skype or Microsoft Teams rooms, making videoconferencing, screen sharing and white boarding simple and seamless. The Aruba infrastructure ensures reliable, high-quality audio and video performance.”
Avanade is also making good use of Aruba ClearPass for guest access. Avanade employees can visit a website to register guests and when the guests arrive, they can just enter their email address to automatically receive Wi-Fi access for the day.
ClearPass also allows Avanade to accommodate its innovation team – a group that gathers a variety of products from different vendors and connects them to the network to test them – without compromising the corporate network’s security.
“We get requests constantly and there’s no way we’re just connecting these headless devices to the corporate network,” Paradi said. “But with ClearPass, we can put in place a self-service management app that leverages APIs to create a more automated workflow for approving and granting access for these new devices, and allows requestors to renew their access say, every six months. We can manage and obtain reporting on all devices and ensure a secure, segmented network.”
Paradi notes that ClearPass will also help Avanade expand its IoT usage. As the company adds more wireless IoT to the network, ClearPass will help it identify and ensure the secure onboarding of new devices.
The Seattle office deployment has been a success and will enable Avanade to extend the same network capabilities to the rest of the organization’s sites easily. Aruba’s location-ready APs will allow Avanade to add new capabilities such as location-based services to enable indoor navigation through the company’s facilities and locate colleagues within the facilities, using location sharing.
“We have Aruba beacons waiting to be deployed and once in place, we’ll leverage Places, a mobile app developed using Aruba’s Meridian platform,” Paradi explained. “Places will let us utilize our hot-desking even further to enable quicker scheduling and will also allow turn-by-turn directions to help employees, guests and visitors navigate to meeting rooms, restrooms, the cafeteria and other locations when they are in the building.”
For Avanade, the biggest benefit of its new network is the flexibility it can offer users now that it has a reliable and seamless mobile-first network. Said Paradi, “The new office space with the Aruba technology is a big win for our employees. The flexibility they have to work wherever they are translates into improved efficiencies and productivity for the company, and a better work environment and experience for our users.”
About Avanade
Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences delivered through the power of people and the Microsoft ecosystem. Our professionals bring bold, fresh thinking combined with technology, business and industry expertise to help fuel transformation and growth for our clients and their customers. Avanade has 35,000 digitally connected people across 24 countries, bringing clients the best thinking through a collaborative culture that honors diversity and reflects the communities in which we operate. Majority owned by Accenture, Avanade was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation. Learn more at www.avanade.com.
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal lives.
To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
