With the CX10000, HPE Aruba Networking is redefining what we understand a network switch to be and providing partners with a solution that delivers built-in firewall and telemetry capabilities, can scale across the infrastructure and deliver a magnitude of improvement in performance.
Demands on the network are always changing and while that’s stating the obvious, the changes now taking place in customer expectations, mean that we need equipment in the fabric of the network to be much more capable.
‘We’ve had software-defined networks for some time now and we’ve seen that start to mature. We’ve also seen capabilities like SASE come to the fore and what we’re seeing now is a bit of a merging of worlds, a blurring of where the edges and the core of the network are’, Richard Grainger, Software Defined Enterprise Leader – UK channel at HPE Aruba Networking explained.
‘The network is in so many different places, in so many different environments and supporting so many different businesses in so many different ways, and we are seeing the data that flows across that infrastructure become incredibly relevant and valuable. And with the evolving threat landscape, customers are really looking for more from their vendors now. There's an expectation that your product should be inherently secure.’
CISOs doubling down
At the same time, securing the data centre and the infrastructure as a whole is becoming more complex and there is a desire amongst Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to simplify. ‘They need to double down on a smaller number of solutions that can deliver more capability for them. As a result, we’ve seen a number of innovations and one of the biggest has come out of a company called Pensando.’
We’ve seen a number of innovations and one of the biggest has come out of a company called Pensando
Pensando Systems was started up in 2017 by a team that included former Cisco CEO boss John Chambers, to develop programmable processors and software. The idea is that this technology can be used inside IT products to provide cybersecurity and other software services, making it integral and putting security closer to where the application and data is located, or out to the network over which it is being transmitted.
The company was acquired by AMD in May 2022. Subsequently, it’s technology has found its way into the HPE Aruba Networking portfolio, heralding the birth of what both AMD and HPE Aruba Networking describe as a completely new category of switch.
We’ve become used to the idea that switches are fairly standard pieces of kit. But the CX10000 is no ordinary switch. It combines the Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching capabilities with the AMD Pensando P4 – the industry's first hardware-accelerated programmable processor.
Two into one will go
Put simply, the CX10000 is a switch but it is also a security appliance. It is capable of firewall performance at speeds of up to 800 Gbps providing protection of ‘east-west’ traffic, zero-trust segmentation, and pervasive telemetry. What that means is that it this is a switch that can provide insights to network management and security tools telling them what is happening with network traffic and allowing you to respond accordingly. It will thus provide massively accelerated performance that is, Aruba claims, an order of magnitude over ‘traditional’ L2/3 switches & separate security appliances and sensors.
Partners can offer their customers a great security solution for the data centre
‘That’s a great differentiator’, said Richard Grainger. ‘It means partners can offer their customers a great security solution for the data centre that can give you 800 gig’ of stateful firewalling and tremendous telemetry and insights into your SIEM and also happens to be capable of replacing a leaf or top of rack. That’s a lot more meaningful and a lot more valuable to customers.’
Serious scalability
There is another way of looking at the CX10000 though, said Toby Makepeace, Systems Engineer at AMD. ‘Up to now, you've had firewalls and other solutions protecting elements of the network. But those solutions have serious scaling and performance issues and what we're really trying to do here is address that and cover all the things that haven't been deliverable from a scale and cost perspective. What we're doing is spreading the security across the infrastructure – not creating a single choke point and a single point of vulnerability.’
This combination of benefits is quite special and should be very appealing to CISOs
As well as enhanced security, spreading the load in this way means you get more bandwidth, lower latency and a real uplift in performance. This combination of benefits is quite special and should be very appealing to CISOs and anyone building and managing an extended network.
To try and give partners a really good way of introducing
the whole concept to customers, TD SYNNEX has collaborated with Edgescan to
offer a free-of-charge attack surface management assessment. This will seek out
weaknesses in network defences and map all assets on the system. It will be an
ideal way of illustrating the need for a solution like the CX10000.
Back in the data centre
Making a really good impression with the CX10000 is important, said Richard Grainger, because it marks a real return to the data centre for HPE Aruba Networking. ‘In the last 12 months, we've doubled down and reinvested and we're now doing something really very meaningful and strategic for our business. This is a statement of HPE Aruba Networking’s intent and direction with data centre networking.’
There is still an early-mover opportunity and HE Aruba Networking is not expecting the competition to come up with anything to match the CX10000 for a while yet
While you may not have heard that much about it, the CX10000 has been available now for a few months. Some of HPE Aruba Networking’s partners are already leading with it on every relevant customer engagement, others have been evaluating the device and are now getting ready to take it to market. There is still an early-mover opportunity and HE Aruba Networking is not expecting the competition to come up with anything to match the CX10000 for a while yet.
The CX10000 with the AMD Pensando technology changes everything we think about switches. Aruba is not only delivering great networking technology, but also bringing something new to the market. That can be incredibly powerful for partners who want to deliver something that really makes a difference for their customers and differentiates them from their competiton.
