Aruba ClearPass Helps You Embrace BYOD

Regardless if you run a bank, hospital or retail organization, one thing’s for certain: your employees and customers have come to expect Wi-Fi access. But if the thought of letting anyone and everyone onto your network scares you, you’re not alone.

With the Aruba ClearPass Access Management System you can embrace the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture allowing guest and employee-owned devices like smart phones, tablets and laptops onto your network without losing control and visibility.

Here’s five other key benefits ClearPass offers:

1. Customized Guest Access Portal

Use your company logo and branding or create unique data-entry fields that users have to fill out to log on. You can even post customized advertisements and offers or other targeted content to create a unique user experience.

2. Seamless Integration

ClearPass is available as both a hardware-based or virtual appliance and can be deployed with any existing network infrastructure from any major vendor, which means you don’t have to replace existing infrastructure.

3. Real-time Analytics

With ClearPass, you have the ability to see which devices have connected to your network in real-time, which can be helpful when it comes to reporting, planning, auditing and compliance.

4. Comprehensive Security

ClearPass has an abundance of security procedures in place to protect your network. You can ensure devices are compliant with your policies before they connect, set a policy according to device type, block applications that don’t meet company policy, provide different service levels based on the user and more.

5. Easy Troubleshooting

ClearPass provides advanced troubleshooting and the forensics needed to easily pinpoint the root cause of a user’s network access or authentication issue. Your IT department will thank you.

So whether you have 10 users or 10,000 on your network, ClearPass will help create a better user experience while keeping your network secure. Curious if ClearPass would work for your business? Contact your account manager today.

Here are 6 statistics you need to know.

Flexibility, scalability, mobility – the benefits of moving to a cloud-first network go on and on. If you’ve even been considering a cloud-first strategy, you’re probably already aware of at least some of these advantages. But these six key findings revealed in the RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report* may surprise you.

1. Security concerns are decreasing.

In past RightScale reports, security has always been the top concern among respondents. However, from 2014 to 2016, security concerns for Enterprise central IT teams, who typically have the most responsibility for security, declined from 47 percent to 37 percent. Is seems as cloud providers and best practices mature, security concerns will continue to decline.

2. Top cloud challenge cited is lack of resources/expertise.

Nearly 32 percent of respondents indicated lack of resources/expertise as their No. 1 cloud challenge, an increase from 27 percent last year. As companies continue to place higher demand on the cloud, the need for technical expertise has grown.

3. Cloud cost management is a significant challenge.

Cloud cost management as a challenge has steadily increased each year from 18 percent in 2013 to 26 percent in 2016. From reducing or eliminating data centers to utilizing flexible capacity, companies have significant opportunities for savings if they know what actions to take.

4. Cloud adoption is on the rise.

This year’s survey findings revealed that private cloud adoption increased from 63 percent to 77 percent, and hybrid cloud adoption increased from 58 percent to 71 percent since 2015. More enterprise workloads are also moving to the cloud – mainly the private cloud – from 22 percent to 31 percent since last year. Overall, 95 percent of respondents are using cloud, up from 93 percent last year.

5. Cloud users see increase in speed.

The survey findings show the two benefits that had the largest increase were faster access to infrastructure, which grew from 57 to 62 percent, and faster time-to market, which grew from 48 to 52 percent. 

6. Cloud initiatives differ based on company size.

The study showed that 2016 cloud priorities differed among Enterprises and SMBs. Enterprises, who generally have a larger number of applications, are more focused on moving more of those workloads to the cloud (57 percent). Small and Medium-sized Business (SMBs) indicated optimizing existing cloud use to achieve cost savings (43 percent) as their No.1 initiative.

Whether you’ve just starting to think about moving some applications to the cloud, have a robust cloud-first strategy in place, or you’re somewhere in-between – we can help. From cost savings to workplace efficiency, our experienced team of technical engineers will help you fully take advantage of all the benefits a cloud-first network can offer. 

* Source: RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report reveals results from a survey of 1,060 technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing.

For our clients, who already have a lot of on their plate, it can be overwhelming to keep pace with emerging trends in the Information Technology world. Don't worry. We’ve got you covered.

At DataVizion, we stay on top of the latest IT offerings from our partners to provide a level of service unachievable by many of our competitors. Here are just some of the recent certifications achieved.

David Andersen, Project Engineer, and Ken Cousino, Field Services Engineer, recently passed the Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE6) exam. From design and installation to configuration and troubleshooting, David and Ken possess a deep understanding of Palo Alto Networks technologies and can implement the best solutions to fit your needs.

DataVizion has been an Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, platinum partner since 2014, differentiating ourselves from our peers with the highest level of engineering and commitment to Aruba products.

Ethan Shold, Engineer, became our newest member of the DataVizion team to pass the Aruba Certified Mobility Professional (ACMP) exam. And Mat Lehn, Engineer, passed the Aruba Certified ClearPass Expert (ACCX) exam. We’re now more ready than ever to provide the expert support for any Aruba solution you decide to implement.

So whether you’re looking to increase mobility or implement an entirely new network infrastructure, we have the skills and expertise to help make it happen.

DataVizion team attends Atmosphere 2016 in Las Vegas.

Our DataVizion team is back from an action-packed week in Las Vegas where we attended Atmosphere 2016. Hosted by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, it’s the largest mobility conference on earth and brings together networking experts from across the globe.

A special thank you to our clients: Boys Town, Immanuel, Kiewit Corporation, Lincoln Public Schools, The Buckle, UniGroup and University of Nebraska at Kearney for joining us.

We heard from top-performing industry professionals, attended breakout sessions and technology demonstrations on a variety of topics including creating a digital workplace, securing the #GenMobile experience with adaptive trust, boosting mobile engagement and making the most of agile data centers.

While we were blown away with all of the new features and third party integration with Aruba products, one of our favorites was Aruba Clarity. Many of our clients face increasing connectivity demands. This newly introduced network management tool enables us to better anticipate and resolve connectivity problems– before they happen. Amazing right?

We also had the opportunity to hear from Meg Whitman, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who spoke about the success of HPE’s acquisition of Aruba last year. Everyone was incredibly proud of the progress that has been made in the past year and excited for the continued growth that lies ahead.

Conferences like Atmosphere 2016 definitely showcase how Information Technology, the ideas surrounding new technologies and the things we can do with them are constantly evolving. But, we love this stuff and are excited to be on the forefront of implementing these ever-advancing solutions.

If you are curious to know more about Aruba Clarity or the other state-of-the-art products showcased at Atmosphere 2016 and how they can benefit your company, give us a call.

Check out YouTube videos from the conference here.