One of the most fundamental network announcements made by HPE Aruba Networking (hereinafter HPE Aruba for readability reasons) in the past five years was that of the CX 10000 in 2021. That switch was ahead of its time, with built-in Pensando DPUs that could perform all kinds of offloading. Now this switch is getting a successor, the HPE Aruba CX 10040. Will it be just as successful, now that Cisco announced its own series of “smart switches” some time ago?
HPE Aruba may be best known as a switch supplier for campus networks, but the CX 10000 and the new CX 10040 announced today are definitely data center switches, initially mostly top-of-rack. Thousands of CX 10000s have already been deployed by customers. “That’s quite significant for a supplier that isn’t necessarily known for its data center footprint,” says John Gray. He is Data Center Networking, AI, Security Infrastructure Lead at HPE Aruba Networking. We spoke to him shortly before the announcement of the CX 10040.
HPE Aruba has gotten a taste for success with the CX 10000. Where the 10/25G CX 10000 primarily focused on top-of-rack, the 100/400G CX 10040 will be suitable for many more use cases. According to Gray, the CX 10040 can certainly be used as a top-of-rack, but it has even more to offer. In general, it will be a more versatile data center switch, including in “colo data centers, interconnects, and hybrid cloud environments where we connect public and private clouds.” In other words, the CX 10040 should make HPE Aruba an even more serious data center player.
HPE Aruba CX 10040 doubles the performance of its predecessor
The HPE Aruba CX 10040 naturally builds on the foundation of its predecessor. However, as already mentioned, it is a lot more powerful. That is not surprising, given the time between the two announcements and launches. Gray talks about a doubling of performance.
When talking about the performance of the CX 10000 line, it’s not just about the maximum Gbps throughput. This is what HPE Aruba Networking calls a distributed services switch and what Cisco earlier this year called a smart switch. This mainly refers to the presence of AMD DPUs (Data Processing Units). The CX 10040 has four, while the CX 10000 had ‘only’ two. This doubling means that the new version can handle more network services. Think of things like a distributed firewall, IPSec, encryption, and the like.
The idea behind adding all kinds of services to the CX 10040 is that this also makes it possible to consolidate significantly. Gray cites an example of a Kyndryl colocation site. There, it was possible to reduce the setup of switches, firewalls, and the services running on them from an 18U to a 2U rack density.
An interesting addition to the CX 10000 line, in our opinion, is that it will be integrated with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials. This should make it possible, among other things, to offer virtualization services related to networking and security. Think of distributed firewalls and microsegmentation. Gray readily admits that this is not a complete replacement for VMware NSX, but it can replace “many of the high runner functions” of NSX.
Competition with Cisco’s smart switches
One of the things that strikes us about today’s announcement is that HPE Aruba has chosen to use the term “smart switch” when describing the CX 10040. This is a name that Cisco introduced earlier this year when it launched the N9300 line.
In our opinion, smart switch is not a good name for this type of switch, as we explain in the article linked above. However, we do understand why HPE Aruba is going along with it. If the largest player by far is going to push this category, it’s best to go with the flow. That can only be a good thing.
Another reason HPE Aruba is keen to use the term smart switch is that they are convinced that the CX 10040 is “a lot smarter than theirs [i.e. Cisco’s, ed.],” according to Gray. He says that Cisco’s switches, when they become available this summer, will launch with very little functionality and calls them “feature deficient”. In addition, he believes that Cisco’s N9300 switches are primarily part of a larger plan, namely the marketing of Hypershield.
Hypershield is indeed the first service that Cisco is offering in combination with the N9300 switches at launch. They are therefore clearly part of that security architecture and thus part of the bigger picture. This does not mean, of course, that a whole range of other services will not also become available soon.
Whatever the exact reasons for how Cisco is marketing the N9300 switches, it is not surprising that they are not at the level that HPE Aruba is at. The CX 10040 is already HPE Aruba’s second outing in this space. It has a three-year head start and lead in terms of development. Cisco will undoubtedly catch up at some point, but that is not yet the case.
There’s more: CX 6300M for campus and WiFi 7 access points
Finally, HPE Aruba also announces some other networking equipment today. In addition to the CX 10040, it is also introducing four new CX 6300M campus switches. Gayle Levin, Head of Product Marketing, tells us more about this. The ‘M’ stands for modular, which means that components such as fans and power supplies are easily replaceable. This increases availability and reduces maintenance costs.
These switches are specifically designed for the lower end of the portfolio and are aimed at retail and educational environments. With PoE++, they can deliver up to 90 watts of power to connected devices. Their compact size makes them suitable for locations where space is limited.
More or less the same applies to the WiFi 7 portfolio as to the above switches when it comes to today’s announcements. Once again, this is about filling out the existing 700 series. Outdoor and hardened variants are now also available, allowing wireless connections to be set up in more extreme environments such as freezer rooms and parking lots.
For organizations that want to switch to WiFi 7 but don’t want to pay top dollar, HPE Aruba is also introducing the 720 and 740. These are variations on the 730 and 750 series. They retain the most important WiFi 7 functions but omit certain features. These include omitting one of the two radios for Bluetooth and Zigbee to reduce the price and omitting some of the GPS capabilities.
Availability
The new HPE Aruba CX 10040 will be available from June. We do not yet know whether this will be at the beginning, middle, or end of June. The CX 6300 switches announced today will be available from August, and the access points from November.