Save the Planet, Work Remotely
March 18, 2008
Aruba and Avaya team up to provide secure enterprise-quality voice and data applications to remote workers--and reduce greenhouse gases while they're at it.
Aruba and Avaya team up to provide secure enterprise-quality voice and data applications to remote workers--and reduce greenhouse gases while they're at it.
According to Aruba, a telecommuter traveling 45 milesroughly the distance between San Jose and San Francisco, or Boston and Providencetwice a week, instead of every day, will reduce annual CO2 emissions by roughly 5.5 metric tons (an amount that could also be offset with a $66 donation to CarbonCounter.org).
Aruba is a member of the US Green Building Council and our objective is to deliver technology in service not only of end-users, but to be as environmentally-friendly as possible. One way we can help is getting people off the road, says Mike Tennefoss, Head of Strategic Marketing for Aruba.
Avayas clients currently include more than one million businesses worldwide, including 90% of the Fortune 500, which are using Avaya solutions for IP telephony, unified communications, contact centers, and communications-enabled business processes.
Avaya makes a wide range of IP telephones and other voice and messaging systems, says Tennefoss. Their objective [in teaming with us] is to allow you to use the same Avaya equipment when traveling, as you would locally.
The IP-based solution integrates components of Avaya Connected Teleworkerincluding IP telephones, Avaya Communication Manager software, and Avaya Modular Messaging serverswith Aruba adaptive wireless LANs. It provides identity-based, follow-me security wherever a teleworker roams, using an unobtrusively packaged remote access pointabout the size of a couple of decks of cards--that includes an integrated firewall and router, and a centralized management system that can accommodate large workforces.
The enterprise-level security and voice solution is not just for large corporations, however.
The Remote Access Software works for any size business and with any Aruba access point. It works with all of our controllers, from our smallestsix to ten APsto the largest enterprise. If you are a retail store and want to set up branch offices, but dont have IT departments in the field, you can mail the manager an AP and as soon as his or her Internet connection is up and running, he or she can just plug in the AP and they are live online with the corporate data center. They can set up shop with Avaya IP-based phones, etc.
Aruba is a member of the Avaya DevConnect programan initiative to develop, market, and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a companys investment in its network.
We are Avaya interoperability-certified, says Tennefoss. DevConnect is a rigorous set of tests. If our system was difficult to set up or incompatible, we wouldnt have passed.
Among the products that have been rated compliant by Avaya is Arubas Remote Access Point software, which can be loaded on any Aruba access point. The Remote Access Point provides a secure connection back to the enterprise without requiring a client to be installed on a laptop or other Wi-Fi-enabled device. It features a built-in firewall and a split-tunneling router. Users connect the access point to any wide area network (WAN) and the softwareconfigured by the IT department before the AP was distributed to the userwill automatically find the primary or back-up enterprise data center, establish a secure link, and start delivering applications.
Remote Access Point software, loaded into any Aruba access point, converts it into a remote connection solution. It enables the AP to roam over the Internet and find the primary or backup data centers that the enterprise has set up. And then it will set up an IPsec tunnel, the kind of security that a VPN provides, a secure tunnel from that data center to that access point, says Tennefoss.
All Avaya wired or wireless IP phones work with the Aruba Remote Access Point.
The point of the remote access softwareand theres nothing like it on the market todayis to bring the enterprise desktop experience to you wherever you are with the same level of security and convenience. Theres no software on your laptop or dual-mode phone or PDA. Everything is handled for you, says Tennefoss.
The teleworker solution is available for immediate deployment, and has been tested for interoperability under both Avayas DevConnect program and Arubas technology partnership program.
Naomi Graychase is Managing Editor at Wi-FiPlanet.com.