SCIENCE

Aruba Networks announced that its Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) architecture for Wi-Fi networking enables wire-like performance of Microsoft Lync Server 2010, with tests showing up to 75 percent better performance for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 delivered over an Aruba network when compared to an equivalent Cisco Wi-Fi network. The degree of improvement was calculated from mean opinion scores (MOS) after rigorous testing by Aruba and Microsoft, using Microsoft testing and evaluation criteria.

Aruba has also been named a Microsoft Network Infrastructure Optimization Partner. To ensure that end-users experience high audio and video quality with Microsoft Lync, Microsoft has collaborated with several network infrastructure vendors, including Aruba, to provide prescriptive guidance on the networking requirements for Lync. Focused on the needs of networking and IT Professionals, Network Infrastructure Optimization partners provide documentation, services and support for companies to optimize their enterprise networks for real-time audio, video and collaboration with Lync.

The Aruba MOVE architecture has also been certified as interoperable with Lync Server 2010, through the ArubaEdge Partner Program. "The performance testing and associated solution guide for the Aruba wireless infrastructure with Lync Server 2010 will help make it faster and easier for integrators to deploy a combined system," said Kapil Sharma, principal group program manager of Lync Partner Engineering at Microsoft.

YES Prep Public Schools, a free, open-enrollment public school system that serves 4,200 students across eight locations in the Houston area, needed an access network that would ensure high performance of Lync Server 2010. The collaboration suite is used by teachers and staff at all eight YES Prep schools, as well as its headquarters.

"No one here has a desk phone, period," said Troy Neal, director of information technology at YES Prep. "With the discounts that Microsoft gives K-12 on Microsoft Lync 2010, the quality with which it performs over the Aruba access network, and the cost savings associated with deploying Lync instead of traditional PBX's, every K-12 school in the country should be doing this. We went from it taking six to nine months and $40,000 to $60,000 dollars to get a school up and running with a voice PBX to two or three weeks at between $300 and $3,000 dollars per site. As for the video and voice quality over the Aruba wireless network, let's just say no one can tell it's wireless, and that pretty much says it all."

Gartner Research forecasts that growth of PC softphones, mobile softphones and IP-enabled wireless telephones will outstrip that of wired IP phones in the business telephone market from 2011 to 2015; TDM wireless telephones and both analog and digital telephones are in decline.* The rapid adoption of softphones and wireless phones that serve as the foundation of unified communications solutions makes the availability of a highly-secure and context-aware wireless network a practical necessity.

ArubaOS Mobility Services enable context-aware mobility, identifying the user, device, application and location and optimizing the access network for advanced applications such as Microsoft Lync Server 2010. These services are centrally deployed, with private or public cloud-based management and also manage security, policy and network performance for every user and device on the network, regardless of access type.

"The growth in use of unified communications suites such as Lync Server 2010, accompanied by the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets, has created both opportunities and challenges for corporate IT departments," said Ben Gibson, chief marketing officer for Aruba. "The Aruba-Microsoft partnership ensures a dependable unified communications experience for mobile devices operating on Wi-Fi networks. As a result, IT organizations can now rightsize their wired networks and telecom equipment to realize significant savings in network build and operation costs."

Aruba has published a detailed configuration guide to help users develop high-performance mobile access networks optimized for Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

For more information on Aruba Wi-Fi with Microsoft Lync Server 2010, please join us for a webinar on Wednesday, July 19, 2011 at 10 am PST. You may register for the webinar using the link below: http://page.arubanetworks.com/lyncme.html

*Gartner, Inc., Forecast: Business Telephones, Worldwide, 2006-2015, 1Q11 Update, Megan Marek Fernandez, March 10, 2011.