Mist gets into gear with first self-driving network for the enterprise
Mist Systems has launched what it claims as the world’s first AI-driven self-driving network for the enterprise, allowing business users to streamline IT operations, simplify troubleshooting across wired/wireless domains and deliver optimised experiences
Claiming to enable business users to streamline IT operations, simplify troubleshooting across wired or wireless domains and deliver optimised experiences to network users, Mist Systems has launched what it claims as the world’s first artificial intelligence-based self-driving network for the enterprise.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) engine and microservices cloud technology, the Juniper Networks subsidiary believes its new infrastructure can transform enterprise networks with automation and insights.
The key business benefits, it claims, are that its network brings automated operations and service levels to enterprise access switching customers, as well as providing a framework for self-driving networks, converting AI-driven insight into actionable tasks for proactive and streamlined IT operations.
Outlining why such capabilities are relevant to network operations and the benefits they could potentially bring to users, Craig Mathias, principal with wireless and mobile technology advisory firm Farpoint Group, said: “The key to success in network operations today – as measured by reduced operating expense, enhanced staff productivity, reliable network performance, unified wired/wireless management that delivers configuration without conflict and optimal end-user quality of experience – is to integrate advances in management technologies that make all of this easy. The self-driving network – long a challenging but essential goal – is finally here.”
A cloud subscription service for the Mist Wired Assurance technology is designed to take telemetry data into the microservices cloud and AI engine and result in simpler operations, shorter mean time to repair and better visibility into user experiences.
The network is set up to alert administrators when there is a deviation in switch performance from baseline before issues exist. Self-driving remediation functionality is designed to identify the root cause of wired and wireless problems and take automated actions when possible, including the automatic addition of missing VLAN configurations and automatically correcting switch port misconfigurations.
A Marvis Actions dashboard, a new capability within Mist’s Marvis virtual network assistant (VNA) service, is designed to identify the root cause of issues across various IT domains – WLAN, LAN, WAN and security – and automatically resolve them when possible. If the issue is outside the domain of the access network, Marvis will provide a set of recommended actions to help IT departments resolve the issue.
Marvis also delivers wired visibility for third-party switches, identifying issues such as inactive/missing VLANs, firmware compliance and Power over Ethernet (PoE) budget constraints, and offers insight into wireless users’ issues caused by wired problems.
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