Aruba Networks Retail Demo: Presence Analytics Added To Aruba Central

Aruba Networks has enhanced its flagship cloud-based network management platform, Aruba Central, by adding new analytics features targeting the retail market.

"Retailers have been trying to redefine themselves, trying to figure out how they leverage technology, and mobility specifically, to kind of bridge the physical and digital [worlds]," said Alan Ni, head of vertical marketing for Aruba.

"There's a lot of organizations that like to understand presence analytics – who's actually in a store, who's actually engaged, who's a passerby," said Ni in an interview with CRN at Aruba's Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters. "One of the newest innovations in [Aruba Central] is, we've had analytics for awhile, we've had it on a lot of our platforms, but we now brought it into Central."

Aruba Central is a cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service offering that manages and monitors Aruba's access points, switches and branch gateways with zero-touch provisioning. Advanced capabilities inside the platform include customizable guest Wi-Fi and presence analytics.

"It’s a Software-as-a-Service solution and through that subscription, we've been able to continually innovate on this specific platform and we've been able to bring features like presence-based analytics to the platform," said Ni.