Prospectus Summary
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information you should consider in making your investment decision. You should read this summary together with the more detailed information, including our financial statements and the related notes and schedule, included elsewhere in this prospectus. You should carefully consider, among other things, the matters discussed in “Risk Factors.”
ARUBA NETWORKS, INC.
Overview
We provide an enterprise mobility solution that enables secure access to data, voice and video applications across wireless and wireline enterprise networks. Our Aruba Mobile Edge Architecture allows end-users to roam to different locations within an enterprise campus or office building while maintaining secure and consistent access to all of their network resources. Our architecture also enables IT managers to establish and enforce policies that control network access and prioritize application delivery based on an end-user’s organizational role and authorization level. We enable our enterprise customers to extend the same user-centric solution to remote locations such as branch offices and home offices connected over the Internet. Our solution integrates the ArubaOS operating system, optional value-added software modules, a centralized mobility management system, high-performance programmable mobility controllers, and wired and wireless access points.
We believe that the Aruba Mobile Edge Architecture is fundamentally different from “fixed edge” mobility solutions such as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), open access to fixed ports and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Our user-centric architecture enables a new “mobile edge” that allows users to enjoy secure, high performance access to network applications as they roam across the enterprise network and to remote locations that have an Internet connection. Using our architecture, IT departments can manage user-based network access and enforce application delivery policies from a single integrated point-of-control in a consistent manner. Our Aruba Mobile Edge Architecture delivers the following benefits:
Our goal is to establish our solution as the standard approach to enabling secure mobility for global enterprises. We believe that our products can provide significant benefits to mobile enterprise users across every major industry and geography. We began commercial shipments of our products in June 2003, and we now have over 2,000 end customers worldwide, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Google, Guangzhou Metro, NTT Data Corporation, The Ohio State University, Pu Dong International Airport (Shanghai), SAP, Saudi Aramco, United States Air Force and University of Washington. We sell our products and support services directly through our own sales force and indirectly through Value Added Resellers (VARs), distributors and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
End box 1 END LOGICAL PAGE PAGEBREAK BEGIN LOGICAL PAGE Begin box 1Industry Background
End-users are increasingly mobile and are dependent on access to their enterprise network. Enterprises are deploying mobility solutions to maintain their competitiveness, increase productivity, improve resource management and reduce IT support costs. In addition, several new applications are being introduced that will require more effective enterprise mobility solutions.
To date, enterprises have responded to the increasing demands for mobility by deploying WLANs, enabling open access on wired network ports and/or providing VPN solutions. All of these solutions extend the fixed edge of the existing network on a limited basis and often result in reduced security and sub-optimal application performance. Traditional WLANs are fundamentally designed to extend fixed network services over the air as opposed to adapting them to roam with the user. Traditional WLANs also lack application awareness, which often results in poor performance for enterprise applications, particularly latency sensitive services such as voice and video. Many enterprises provide open access to wired network ports, which increases the potential for unauthorized access to the network through physical network ports and limits the number of users who can access the network. VPNs offer employees secure mobile access to the enterprise network, but this approach requires IT managers to install, configure and maintain client software on the end-user’s machine. VPNs are costly and complex to administer on a per-user basis and often restrict application functionality.
We believe significant demand exists for a user-centric solution that integrates security with mobility, is easy to deploy and scale, and is based on an architecture that delivers improved application performance with the ability to support new services.
The Aruba Strategy
Key elements of our strategy include:
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware in February 2002. Our principal executive offices are located at 1322 Crossman Ave., Sunnyvale, California 94089-1113, and our telephone number is (408) 227-4500. Our website address is www.arubanetworks.com. The information on our website is not part of this prospectus.
Except where the context requires otherwise, in this prospectus the terms “Company,” “Aruba Networks,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Aruba Networks, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and, where appropriate, its subsidiaries. ARUBA NETWORKS and ARUBA WIRELESS NETWORKS are registered trademarks in the United States. Our unregistered trademarks include ARUBA THE MOBILE EDGE COMPANY, ARUBA MOBILITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, MOBILE EDGE ARCHITECTURE and PEOPLE MOVE. NETWORKS MUST FOLLOW. This prospectus also includes other trademarks of Aruba Networks and other persons.
End box 1 END LOGICAL PAGE PAGEBREAK BEGIN LOGICAL PAGE Begin box 1