Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, announced that Miami, Florida-based Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County has selected Aruba’s network solution to replace a Cisco-Meraki network.
Adrienne Arsht Center is deploying a full suite of Aruba access switching, HPE datacenter and core switching, wireless and security solutions to deliver mobile-first experience for up to 5,000 users connecting to its network regularly.
Now in its 11th season, the Adrienne Arsht Center hosts approximately 500 theatrical and performance events each year. In addition to these, the Center offers free programming for the local community and an arts education program that serves nearly 30,000 children annually.
The Center had used a Cisco-Meraki infrastructure for wireless connectivity and HPE for its data center networking solutions. When HPE acquired Aruba, the benefit of having a single vendor, approaching a single-pane-of-glass for management, made their upgrade decision easier.
Adrienne Arsht Center now uses HPE 5900 switches in the core and Aruba 2920 switches at the edge of the network. The network upgradation was carried out with its channel partner, CSPi.
James J. Thompson, assistant vice president, Information Technology for the Adrienne Arsht Center, noted, “As a nonprofit, we have a very small IT staff, so the ability to have an easily managed, end-to-end network is critical for us. We’ve had a great partnership with HPE over the years and seeing the capabilities of the combined Aruba and HPE portfolio made our wireless vendor choice a simple one.”
With the new infrastructure in place, the Center is also able to provide Wi-Fi access inside the Center’s four main performance spaces and their respective box offices. It is beneficial especially for users who conduct credit card transactions at restaurants and ticket counters.
Thompson noted that supporting these kinds of Point-of-Sale applications with robust security and PCI compliance were top of mind when they selected the Aruba wireless solutions.
Also read: Aruba offers Mobile First Platform
In the next phase, Adrienne Arsht Center plans to deploy Aruba’s AirWave network management and ClearPass Guest for secure onboarding of visitors’ mobile devices to its guest Wi-Fi network, as well as Aruba’s Mobile Engagement Solution including the Meridian App Platform and Aruba Beacons.
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