Attending HPE Discover 2017 did not disappoint. It was a fabulous week filled with presentations from subject matter experts on cool new tech, conversations with incredibly talented engineers and bloggers, and maximum levels of geeking out with other geeks.
I suspect this blog audience would be super interested to hear more about the new 8400 Aruba core switch announced at HPE Discover this year.
The speeds and feeds, along with and all the usual data sheet info is here, but what really stands out is the emphasis on telemetry data and programmability. Much of the focus on visibility and automation has been leveraged to make troubleshooting easier for the engineer.
The demonstration I saw up close was a simple script that allowed for monitoring of the priority voice queue. The script automagically detected any issues with the queue, captured offending packets when there was an issue, and presented the info to the user. The Network Analytics Engine even gave some guesses as to why the issue occurred. The demo I saw is pretty similar to what you can see in this short demo.
The 8400 is the first core switch Aruba has come out with, and it touts a new OS based on the existing Aruba switch OS. Yes, the thought of a new OS makes me a tad nervous when talking core switching, so be sure to check out the Coffee Talk Day 2’s first session in which the thoroughness of the OS testing process is discussed. If you’d rather not watch the whole thing, just know that code quality is a focus of the developers involved.
Other cool HPE Discover announcements included Aruba Asset Tracking, which leverages BLE enabled tags and Meridian Location Services to keep up with your stuff in real time. Data sheet goodness is here – see excerpt below from the data sheet to see the APs that support Asset Tracking.
For more HPE Discover 2017 goodness, check out these recorded sessions, I especially recommend Day Three’s talk on machine learning algorithms and the state of AI, completely fascinating, totally nerdy goodness.
Coffee Talks Day 1
Coffee Talks Day 2
Coffee Talks Day 3
Disclaimer: While HPE was very generous to invite me to this great event, my opinions are totally my own, as all redheads are far too stubborn to have it any other way. Also, special thanks to Pegah, Laura, and Becca for doing such a great job organizing this event.
Amy Engineer 
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