Arista Networks introduced unified wired and wireless campus edge products designed to help enterprises support IoT.
The Arista 720XP Series, which represents Arista’s first purpose-built campus leaf products, includes four fixed configuration models and offers capabilities for new multi-gigabit access port speeds (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T) enabling the transition to higher speed access devices, up to 60 watts of Power over Ethernet (PoE) for powering IP phones, access points, and IoT devices, and a choice of 25G, 40G and 100G uplink ports for connectivity to Arista Campus Spline platforms.
The 720XP Series runs the same Arista EOS and CloudVision software, bringing a consistent and simplified operational model to the campus edge. Key benefits include:
- Device Analyzer, providing endpoint inventory and deep flow analysis for all connected devices and helping to proactively identify security threat vectors.
- Cloud-like operations, including workflows to simplify change controls though network-wide automation, to reduce the maintenance windows duration, and to quickly assess network compliance.
- Network access control integration through standard RADIUS solutions as well as a standards-based group-based segmentation approach with VXLAN and EVPN.
- Wireless mobility and roaming, leveraging integrated VXLAN tunnel termination instead of legacy controller-based options.
- Expanded device support to manage PoE usage through CloudVision’s dashboards.
- End-to-end Troubleshooting – leverage CloudVision’s network-wide database for unprecedented time-series visibility across campus, data center, and cloud networks in a single view.
Arista said its new campus leaf switches integrate directly with its Cognitive WiFi portfolio, including Arista’s first WiFi 6 access point. The new C-250 access point supports the full 802.11ax standard including 8×8 MU-MIMO, uplink OFDMA & MU-MIMO. Like other Arista enterprise access points, it also includes a 2×2 dual band 3rd radio. With target use cases for WiFi 6 such as higher bandwidth video, and many more simultaneous users, the 3rd radio will be essential. Along with a variety of other data sources, the 3rd radio provides a continuous stream of telemetry data into Arista’s Cognitive WiFi architecture where the power of cloud is harnessed to apply machine learning and cognitive intelligence.
Arista’s enterprise focus also includes a broader partnership scope, including an ecosystem of channel partners, managed services partners, and technology partners.