From connecting laptops into a wired LAN network over a decade ago to keeping tabs on a building's IOT devices today, networking vendor Aruba has closely tracked emerging trends in the networking world.
The company opened its doors in 2002, and last year saw 13% growth year-on-year, which is the fastest growth by any networking company of its scale, according to Aruba co-founder and president Keerti Melkote. Three years ago it was acquired by HP Enterprise.
Speaking at the company's annual conference, Atmosphere EMEA, in Croatia this week, Melkote said the first five years of its existence, before WiFi was ubiquitous, was mostly about connecting laptops to networks.
The next trend was ushered in partly by the rise in popularity of the iOS and Android operating systems, which led to employees bringing their own devices into the enterprise.
This, says Melkote, brought unique security challenges.
The rise of IOT
The last five years have been about enabling voice and video communications over WiFi within the enterprise, he says.
Looking to the future, he predicts there will be a fusing of mobile technology with IOT, specifically the automation of lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in buildings. All these devices will be connected to the network, and will need managing and protection.
The network is a window to help us understand users and space and risk.
Partha Narasimhan, Aruba CEO
Melkote says the nascent wave of IOT devices will also bring a new set of security challenges as these devices all run software, but are typically not protected against malware.
Partha Narasimhan, Aruba CTO, says the introduction of IOT, as well as user devices and the way they behave on the network, sharply raises the risk profile of networks. The devices are used as gateways into the network by cyber criminals. And once the network has been compromised, it will be explored for higher value assets.
Space and risk
Narasimhan recounts how a casino in the US recently had its database hacked after attackers gained access to its network by compromising a thermostat in a fish tank in the lobby. The attackers were also apparently able to use the IOT thermostat to send them the casino's entire customer database.
He says the thermostat in the fish tank would probably transmit about 10MB to a network on a normal day, 'but one morning it wakes up and starts sending gigabytes back and forth'.
"If you start observing those patterns, this will become your first trigger to start investigating."
"The network is a window to help us understand users and space and risk," says Narasimhan, adding that a network becomes a lot more valuable if insights into user behaviour are leveraged.
Aruba earlier this year released a product called NetInsight, which establishes what parameters are considered normal on a particular network, and then flags anomalous behaviour.
"The attackers just need one way to get in," says Narasimhan.
Successful enterprises have long known about the benefits of empowering their employees with technology to foster collaboration and innovation, he says.
The challenge is that new technology, and the new experiences it brings, should be managed in a way that does't create risk, or bring new ways for hackers to penetrate the network.
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