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Aruba Networks, Inc.: KPMG Pockets $2 Million in Build-Out Savings by Rightsizing Its Enterprise Network With 802.11n Wi-Fi Sol


Published on 2009-07-07 21:40:49, Last Modified on 2009-07-07 21:40:57 - Market Wire
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SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - July 7, 2009) - Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ ARUN ]), a global leader in wireless LANs and secure mobility solutions, and BT, one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services, today announced that KPMG Netherlands, an audit, tax and advisory service with a network of member firms spanning 144 countries worldwide, has deployed a high-performance, adaptive 802.11n wireless network at its new 2800 person Global Headquarter facility outside of Amsterdam. The wireless network in Amsterdam, installed by Aruba authorized partner BT, is to be used for data, voice and, in the future, fixed-mobile convergence voice applications. By relying on a shared high-speed wireless LAN in lieu of multiple Ethernet connections per user, KPMG reduced by 50% the number of wired ports and switches, yielding considerable cost savings.

"By our previous IT standard we would have built the new facility with over 18,000 Ethernet ports, but by using Aruba's adaptive 802.11n solution instead we eliminated roughly 50% of the ports, cables, switch chassis, and blades," said Hans Zwart, CIO of KPMG Netherlands. "To put that in perspective, and taking into account just the up-front network build-out costs, we saved more than $2 million by shifting to the Aruba 802.11n solution. And we achieved a level of workplace collaboration and productivity that would simply not be possible with a wired LAN."

KPMG Netherlands is dedicated to reaching aggressive sustainability targets for reducing both green house gas emissions and its overall resource footprint. By eliminating hundreds of kilometers of copper cabling and associated plastic wiring devices, and reducing the cooling load within the facility through switch consolidation, KPMG's rightsized network is making a valuable contribution to achieving these green goals. KPMG estimates that reduced power and cooling demands alone will eliminate more than 350 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

"Our new facility has 26 satellite equipment rooms, and the average room size and cooling cost per square meter were significant considerations," continued Zwart. "Eliminating so much wired gear, including 126 switch port blades, enabled us to significantly reduce the size of equipment rooms, electric power consumption, cooling load on the HVAC system, and capital and operating expenses."

Over 500 Aruba 802.11n access points were deployed by BT throughout the KPMG Netherlands facility to provide blanket coverage for data and voice, paving the way for future applications such as video, fixed mobile convergence and telepresence. Such a high density of access points and clients would be problematic for non-adaptive and single-channel networks. However, Aruba's Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) technology automatically compensates for high density deployments, while application-awareness ensures that voice, data, and other clients perform optimally. ARM lowers deployment and maintenance costs by automating site surveys and using infrastructure-based controls to optimize the performance of Wi-Fi clients in real-time. By controlling how Wi-Fi clients interact, ARM ensures that data, voice, and video applications have sufficient network resources, including airtime, to operate properly.

BT provides a single point of contact for high-performance, seamless global networking. With highly skilled staff based around the world and strong local partnerships, BT delivers services in 173 countries. "The KPMG deployment is both visionary and eminently practical, paving the way for future wireless services while yielding immediate cost savings," said Bas Burger, CEO BT Benelux. "The installation itself went smoothly because this type of network automatically adapts to the changing radio frequency environment, and the features designed to speed deployment, troubleshooting, and on-going maintenance. Rightsizing is a timely concept and we look forward to assisting other enterprise customers achieve similar resulting by migrating from wired to wireless networks."

Roughly 500 Aruba 802.11n access points are already deployed at fourteen other KPMG facilities in The Netherlands. With the completion of the new Global Headquarters facility, KPMG Netherlands' employees can now freely roam between all of the Dutch facilities with the assurance that network access will be available and security policies uniformly enforced.

"Rightsizing is good for the bottom line and it's good for the planet," said Chris Harget, Aruba's rightsizing marketing manager. "Especially in this tough economic climate, enterprises need the mobility and productivity benefits that come from an 802.11n wireless network. What they don't need is the expense burden and resource wastage of an overbuilt Ethernet network, an all too common scenario in most enterprises. Rightsizing lowers costs, eliminates waste, and minimizes an enterprise's resource footprint. KPMG Netherlands more than paid for their entire wireless network with savings obtained from rightsizing their wired network. We've developed a rightsizing calculator that highlights the expected savings, and time and again it has been validated in cases like KPMG's."

A free white paper on network rightsizing titled The End of the Wire: Rightsizing the Enterprise LAN can be downloaded from Aruba's Web site at [ http://bit.ly/Vq6xE ]. For information on the environmental impact of rightsizing please see Aruba's Green Island News blog at [ http://bit.ly/Fxhip ].

About Aruba Networks

People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam. Our mobility and network virtualization solutions ensure that the enterprise network moves in lock-step with users:

 -- Adaptive 802.11n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical information; -- Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed; -- Remote networking solutions ensure uninterrupted access to enterprise resources without compromising security; -- Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its competitors. 

The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at [ http://www.arubanetworks.com ]. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter at [ http://twitter.com/ArubaNetworks ].

About BT

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group's revenue was £21,390 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit [ www.bt.com/aboutbt ].

© 2009 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., The All-Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, RFprotect, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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