Juniper brings 128 Technology under Mist AI umbrella

25 Feb Juniper brings 128 Technology under Mist AI umbrella

Juniper Networks didn’t take long to integrate 128 Technology’s capabilities with its Mist AI platform. About four months after announcing its acquisition of 128 Technology and less than two months after closing the deal, Juniper today said it has added WAN Assurance and the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant to 128’s Session Smart network portfolio.In addition, Juniper announced that it has enhanced operations for the SRX secure branch gateway using Mist AI, and it unveiled a new cloud-native EX switching platform, the EX 4400 Secure Access Switch.
These moves help bring 128’s offerings under Juniper’s Mist AI umbrella, which helps the company provide what it described as “optimal client-to-cloud user experiences,” a well as lower costs, through integrated AI operations, security and troubleshooting across the WLAN, LAN and WAN.

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Jeff Aaron, vice president of enterprise product marketing at Juniper, told FierceTelecom, “Our vision is for an AI-driven transition away from network-centric networking and toward user-centric networking. AI enables three things – automation, insights and action. SSR [Session Smart Routers] provides the unique ability to look directly into the session layer to see what’s happening with a session and adjust it without tunnels, which add overhead.”
He added, “For example, with WAN Assurance and the Marvis virtual assistant for Session Smart SD-WAN, you can get on a Zoom call and see what’s happening and control it. You can query Marvis in natural language to troubleshoot and correct any issues that come up. It’s like having an IT expert right there with you.”
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Regarding other aspects of the announcement, the company’s SRX Series of secure branch gateways can now take advantage of automation to be onboarded and configured using Mist AI and the cloud. The ability to auto-configure branch routers and enable secure connectivity through the same platform used for wired and wireless access will lower costs for users and streamline overall management, Aaron said.
In addition, according to Juniper’s press release, the new EX4400 secure access switch also leverages AI and automation to allow enterprises “to seamlessly design an EVPN-VXLAN network fabric that extends from the data center to the campus core, distribution and access layers, coupled with important security capabilities such as MACsec AES256 and standards-based microsegmentation using group-based policies (GBP). By leveraging Mist AI, the EX4400 (like all EX access switches) makes it easy to set up and manage wired access networks and troubleshoot ‘needle in haystack’ problems like misconfigured VLANs and bad cables.”
Aaron added, “It’s essentially an access switch born in the cloud and AI era.”