The Developers Program distributes open-source software development kits and application programming interfaces created by Aruba Labs designed to help partners to rapidly prototype new wireless applications. These Windows and Linux-based tools enable developers to add new functionality to Wi-Fi networks.

The Advanced Directed Research Program takes on challenging, blue-sky problems that explore the boundaries of wireless networking. Partners collaborate directly with Aruba Labs' engineers on sponsored research, joint development work, and grant-funded programs.

"Aruba Labs follows the open source community model with regard to investigating the boundaries of Wi-Fi technology," said Keerti Melkote, Aruba's co-founder and CTO. "The Labs' toolkits enable student, faculty, and corporate researchers to create and test new Wi-Fi applications using an off-the-shelf platform. For example, some partners are experimenting with Wi-Fi based emergency digital signage for weather notification, shelter-in-place instructions, and lost persons warnings. Others are exploring the integration of Wi-Fi sensors and controls for energy monitoring, security, and building automation. By making available ready-to-use toolkits and a forum for discussing findings, Aruba Labs is helping to accelerate the pace of research on wireless networks and applications."

Aruba Labs' multi-disciplinary Green Island Project sponsors research on the economic, environmental, and social ramifications of the all-wireless workplace. The newfound mobility that results from casting off data cabling has profound sustainability, efficiency, productivity, and financial effects. Smaller switches with fewer ports have lower energy consumption, architectural and space planners have fewer design constraints when data cabling considerations are removed, and our carbon footprint and urban planning needs change dramatically when telecommuting is as easy as working in the office. The Green Island Project provides a forum for researching and discussing the impact these changes have on individuals, institutions, and society.

"IT organizations have an opportunity to improve the environmental footprints of their IT infrastructures, and an even bigger opportunity to make a real contribution to helping the enterprise contribute to tackling climate change," said Gartner Research VP Simon Mingay. "Few enterprises, and even fewer IT management teams, have truly grasped the scale and speed of the shock wave that is likely to hit them. Most are struggling to connect the issues of sustainability with improved business performance. We believe this will change as the imperative for change starts to affect management teams."

"Moving to an all-wireless workplace reduces energy and copper consumption, yielding a trail of benefits that starts at coal and copper mines and ends at the waste dump," continued Melkote. "Likewise rules for space planning change profoundly when workgroup collaboration can occur anywhere, not just at a wired PC or phone. Working in conjunction with participating educational institutions and companies, we seek to quantify the effects of this transformation, to paint a picture of the broad array of technological and societal consequences. Energy utilization, public policy, urban planning, and network design will all be affected -- the question is how? That's what The Green Island Projects sets out to answer."

Aruba Labs' Developer's Program is open to all qualifying interested parties, while the Advanced Directed Research Program is available by invitation only. The Green Island Project is open to all K-12 and higher education institutions that are Aruba customers, and to commercial institutions on a case-by-case basis.

Keywords: aruba networks inc, application programming interfaces, chief technology officer, open source community development, social ramifications, weather notification, networking partners, digital signage, wireless workplace, melkote, keerti, Wireless Security