One of the most promising announcements at Mobility Field Day Live with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company for me had to be the introduction of ClearPass Extensions. The concept behind this feature is to leverage a repository within ClearPass, such that new features may be created and ran without compromising the integrity of the system and the underlying code with some sort of “engineering special". This functionality adds substantial value to an already feature rich ClearPass product.


ClearPass Extensions enabled Aruba partners such as Microsoft, Intel Security, Kasada, and Envoy to develop innovative features that may be released ahead of a major release of code which improves feature velocity and more importantly client satisfaction.
Currently this is a relatively closed system with Aruba handling the development as a professional services engagement, but as a service oriented partner we see the light at the end of the tunnel and are looking to truly create some differentiating features for our customers that provide tight integration of ClearPass with the business.
Aruba’s vision for where ClearPass Extensions will go includes a developer community and an “app store" enabling customers to download or purchase apps that have been developed specifically for ClearPass. Customers can also develop their own features, or engage any third party to do the integration for them in the future.
Creating an opportunity for partners to differentiate themselves from each other and rewarding those that truly understand their customer’s business is an appealing idea. Waiting on features that may take six months to be released during a standard release punishes those companies who are creative and forward looking.
This model rewards these organizations instead by giving them a competitive advantage and an option to potentially generate additional revenues depending on how the app stores comes to light. The potential opportunities of these extensions are seemingly infinite and the upside for organizations investing in this are tremendous.