The News: Juniper Networks announced new additions to its AI-Native Networking Platform focused on delivering proactive insight and automation alongside more value across the company’s wireless and wired access solutions. Read the full press release on the Juniper Networks website.
MFD 11: Juniper Choreographs AI-Native Networking Breakthroughs
Analyst Take: Juniper Networks adroitly choreographed the unveiling and augmentation of the company’s cloud-hosted Wireless, Wired, and Access Assurance products, driven by Mist AI, at the seminal Mobility Tech Field Day event (#MFD11). The announcement spotlighted new additions to its AI-Native Networking Platform that target proactive insight and automation capabilities that can drive more value across wired and wireless access solutions.
The company’s cloud-hosted Wired, Wireless, and Access Assurance products, driven by Mist AI, have been augmented, alongside the company’s AI-Native Virtual Network Assistant, Marvis, with new capabilities that can proactively find and fix network, application, and security issues. These new capabilities can enable Juniper customers and partners to stay ahead of user needs while lowering operational costs (according to Juniper, by up to 85% in some instances).
The new portfolio capabilities emphasize ensuring end-user experiences with proactive insights consisting of new Marvis Application Experience Insights, Marvis Minis that proactively find wired issues without users being present, and new service levels ensure wired experiences backed by customizable service level expectations (SLEs). With Marvis Application Experience Insights, for instance, Juniper has expanded the integration with Zoom and Microsoft Teams to add new insights based on the fusion of the Shapley data science model with its continuous user experience learning.
Marvis Minis capabilities have now been extended to the wired network, building on its AI-native digital experience twinning solution for wireless pedigree, to improve network operations by diagnosing authentication issues without requiring users/devices. Minis now expose switch authorization problems related to RADIUS server failures and provide prescriptive actions to fix these issues before users are aware.
For simplifying operations with proactive troubleshooting and remediation, Juniper is debuting AI-native Dynamic Spectrum Capture, more efficient troubleshooting with wired dynamic packet capture, and Marvis Actions improved wired troubleshooting. The new Dynamic Spectrum Capture feature provides network rewind to wireless interference that can bring sharpened visibility into RF spectrum. As a result, customers are better positioned to fast forward as well as minimize site visits to pinpoint with more precision the root cause of wireless interference.
Plus, the Juniper Mist Wired Assurance solution automatically detects issues as they occur and proactively captures packets in the cloud to help identify and fix the root cause avoiding costly site visits. With dynamic packet capture (dPCAP), administrators can easily resolve intermittent issues that are otherwise very difficult to diagnose and resolve. Marvis Actions can proactively highlight top wired, wireless, WAN, and data center issues affecting user experience on an organization-wide basis, with self-driving remediation or proactive suggestions for swift problem correction.
Juniper put focus on preventing non-compliant usage with proactive access control. Specifically, the Juniper Mist Access Assurance service, its cloud-native and AI-native solution for network access control (NAC) driven by Mist AI, targets streamlining deployment and management through cloud-to-cloud integration with Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)/Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, such as Jamf and Microsoft Intune. Devices attempting to join the network are automatically verified to meet corporate security and device compliance requirements, with prescriptive action taken for non-compliant devices.
Further bolstering proactive access control and non-compliant usage prevention, the Juniper Mist Access Assurance solution now provides onboarding at over 10k eduroam-connected locations in over 100 territories. Various authentication methods are used to grant access to different types of clients, including home users, visitors, and university staff (NAC 802.1x), IoT devices (self-service pre-shared keys), and guests (custom portals).
Juniper Reinforces and Elevates Experience-First Proposition
From my perspective, the new proactive insight and automation innovations build on and reinforce Juniper Networks’ experience-first approach, which uses a trio of AI-Native Networking pillars to drive Juniper portfolio development and progress discernment. The three pillars consist of the right data, the right real-time response, and the right infrastructure.
The right data pillar relies on data stringently harvested to train the Mist AI engine for almost a decade now. This data set powers Juniper’s Marvis VNA, which now introduces Marvis Application Experience Insights and extends its AI-Native Digital Experience Twin Capabilities to wired networks. I find that the Marvis Minis (i.e., Digital Experience Twins) for wired operations show Juniper’s portfolio focus to deliver preemptive problem-solving, diagnosing authentication issues before they impact users. By simulating applications and users on the network, Minis continually monitor and identify configuration issues or other factors that can impact the overall user experience.
To ensure the right real-time response, Juniper’s new Marvis Actions for wired networks, including misconfigured switch port and loop detection, are designed to reduce mean time to repair (MTTR), directly addressing the common customer pain point of constrained resources. To lock in the right infrastructure, Juniper’s cloud-native architecture plays an integral role in delivering competitively advantageous capabilities such as Dynamic Spectrum Capture, dPCAP, and the predictive application assurance for wireless networks.
Key Takeaways: Juniper Proactively Elevates AI-Native Networking Platform
I believe the new Juniper AI-Networking Platform capabilities, such as Marvis Application Experience Insight alongside wireless/wired digital experience twinning, gives Juniper a competitive edge in using proactive insights and automation to ensure customers and partners can fulfill constantly evolving user demands and network requirements.
Moreover, Juniper is spotlighting its ecosystem and partnership acumen by ensuring that vital applications such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom perform as needed regardless of user location. As such, through Juniper’s portfolio-wide AI-infused proactive automation capabilities, customers can attain breakthrough experience-first networking peace of mind with consistency throughout their wireless and wired environments.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
