Ventec Life Systems Accelerates Manufacturing of Life-Saving Ventilator With Aruba

Creator of the First and Only Multi-function Ventilator Uses Aruba Solutions to Help Produce 30,000 Critical Care Ventilators for COVID-19 Pandemic

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that Ventec Life Systems, manufacturer of the VOCSN, the first and only multi-function ventilator, is using an Aruba ESP-based network, which includes Aruba access points (APs), switches and Aruba Central management, to help accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of its life-saving ventilators to hospitals and healthcare facilities across the United States.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ventec has committed to delivering 30,000 of its portable, VOCSN critical care ventilators to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the Strategic National Stockpile. This represents an increase in production from a previous average of about 150 units per month to over 10,000 per month. To accomplish this, Ventec has deployed a network based on Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), a cloud-native platform that continually analyzes data across domains, in its Bothell, Washington headquarters and manufacturing facilities to power a more mobile workforce. In addition, the Aruba network enables better collaboration with Ventec’s manufacturing teams in Kokomo, Indiana, where it has partnered with General Motors (GM) to use the Kokomo GM facility to fulfill its commitment of 30,000 critical care ventilators to the federal government.

According to Jacob Omlid, IT Director for Ventec Life Systems, the Aruba infrastructure is resulting in better productivity and efficiencies, as well as improvements in quality – all of which are important for ensuring more critical care ventilators can be delivered more quickly to the front lines.

“We’re a relatively small company that is now working across three time zones, with multiple teams in a dynamic, fast-paced environment,” explained Omlid. “Communication and collaboration between these teams is critical to ensuring the successful manufacturing ramp-up of our critical care ventilators, so scaling our network to meet these needs was vital. The Aruba wireless, switching and management solutions have allowed us to quickly expand our capacity, ensure smooth and reliable communications, and build in redundancy, so our teams can function at peak levels.”

Ventec is using Aruba Instant APs across its entire Bothell site, and has installed Aruba edge switches along with Aruba Central for management and insights into the network. The APs ensure that every square inch of Ventec’s Bothell site has wireless coverage, which is key for connecting its multiple departments including manufacturing and quality assurance. The wireless coverage has made Ventec’s workforce fully mobile. Using a combination of their mobile devices and applications such as Skype, Teams and Zoom for collaboration and video conferencing, and a variety of manufacturing apps for quality management, ERP, and inventory tracking, employees can work from anywhere in the Ventec facilities. Ventec also relies on the network for its manufacturing line, with wired IoT devices communicating and funneling information back to a central database throughout the manufacturing process.

Omlid noted that the Aruba switches have delivered the redundancy Ventec needed to eliminate network downtime – something they lacked previously – and have provided substantial increases in network performance. Perhaps, more importantly, Aruba Central has given the IT team a dashboard that simplifies configuration and management of all the APs and switches in the network through easy-to-use templates. It also provides valuable insights on activity, as well as alerts, if issues arise.

Concluded Omlid, “Before we had a flat network that wasn’t scalable or redundant, and our employees suffered from bad experiences with the wireless, which was spotty and unreliable. With the Aruba network, we’re seeing a night and day difference, and ultimately, that bolsters our company’s ability to meet the commitments we’ve made to deliver more critical care ventilators, faster, to help battle the current health crisis.”

About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the global leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions that use AI to automate the network, while harnessing data to drive powerful business outcomes. With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) and as-a-service options, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to helping customers meet their connectivity, security, and financial requirements across campus, branch, data center, and remote worker environments, covering all aspects of wired, wireless LAN, and wide area networking (WAN).

To learn more, visit Aruba at www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products, visit the Airheads Community at community.arubanetworks.com.

Contacts

Kathleen Keith

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

+1-707-529-4507

kathleen.keith@hpe.com

Jennifer Miu

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

+1 650-236-9532

jennifer.miu@hpe.com