Aruba Networks loves iPads, and is betting on the ubiquitous Apple device.

The wireless networking company’s new mobility architecture, Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE), allows mobile devices like iPads to roam freely and connect within an enterprise space, and yet securely tracks them and manages their use.

Most importantly, Aruba Networks claims that their MOVE architecture uses less appliances (and hence rack space, energy and deployment), is simpler to manage, and will over a three year period save 70 percent of the total cost of ownership as compared to a rival solution, say, from Cisco’s Borderless mobility architecture.

At a press conference this week in Singapore, Aruba Networks — ranked number two in wireless switching behind networking king Cisco — quoted this exact example, and also launched MOVE in the Asia Pacific region together with a suite of new wireless products.

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It’s taken four years.

Four years to get the Wi-Fi 802.11n specifications finally agreed upon. Four years ago, Airgo Networks (now part of Qualcomm) was a trailblazer in MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), which is the technology behind 802.11n. By using multiple antennas in MIMO, the data throughput and range can be increased.

I remember that 802.11n — then in its draft incarnation — was one of the freshest news to hit the scene four years back when I was still a trade journalist.

Fast forward to today. What was supposed to be a two-year ratification process took four, and 802.11n was finally officially ratified this year in September 2009. Ratification means that if your device is labeled 802.11n compliant, it will work with any other 802.11n device, regardless of vendor.

All of this is history. Except that I got reminded about this when I met Aruba Networks last week at a press event, where they were in town to tout their newest enterprise 802.11n access point device: The AP-105, which is going for US$695 (S$962).

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