Don’t Wait for a Refresh to Achieve a Modern Network


Many organizations modernize or upgrade their network only when it’s time for a refresh. However, transformation doesn’t have to be a wholesale, do-it-all-at-once project to start improving customer and employee experiences today.

For example, a large food retailer was happy with its existing Wi-Fi network vendor. “It was a good product, it served us well for over a decade,” said the organization’s network architect.

Although the company typically has a five-year refresh cycle, its IT leaders became open to making a change after seeing a demo of Juniper Mist™ AI, a wired and wireless network platform. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize user experiences and simplify network operations.

Mist AI seemed “almost too good to be true,” said the network architect. “I’d never seen anything like it in my 23 years in networking.”

The retailer set up a test in one of its stores and was so happy with the results, they rolled out the Juniper Mist solution to five more stores, and then did a full organization-wide rollout.

A rollout that fits your needs

Like the food retailer, many companies take small steps to modernizing their network. They typically start with a pilot or production proof of concept in one or a few branch sites. Then they’ll draw a line in the sand and gradually move additional sites or systems over to the new solution in a slow, incremental rollout.

That said, sometimes a full replacement makes more sense. For example, a large outdoor products retailer has a consistent rollout of new stores, using the same networking gear at each new site. However, when they saw how the Juniper Mist Wi-Fi Assurance solution worked, they decided to adopt it across all locations. A company representative said that based on its ease of deployment, installation, configuration and management, it made sense to do a full rollout.

The solution provides:

  • AI insights from telemetry data to improve the user experience
  • Rapid fault isolation and resolution
  • Automatic identification of network anomalies to enable proactive action

Both the food and outdoor products retailers said that while similar network implementations in the past had taken weeks, the Juniper Mist rollouts were completed within a few days and in some sites, a few hours.

Multiple ways to start the AI-driven journey

There’s no need for a rip-and-replace effort to get started on the journey to an AI-driven network. Juniper makes it easy to implement intelligence and improve network functionality wherever it most makes sense for your organization:

  • Wi-Fi Assurance: a cloud service that replaces manual troubleshooting with automated wireless operations to make Wi-Fi predictable, reliable and measurable
  • Wired Assurance: improves device experiences with AI-driven operations and automation for access-layer switching
  • WAN Assurance: provides visibility into end-user experiences with WANs and delivers insights into the health of the network
  • Marvis Virtual Network Assistant: a conversational digital network expert that contextualizes user requests to accelerate troubleshooting, answer network questions, find devices and learn from user feedback to improve experiences
  • Asset Visibility: find devices and users on the network with detailed location analytics
  • Risk Profiling: leverages security intelligence to analyze network traffic and protect against threats
  • IoT Assurance: secures network connections for Internet of Things and bring-your-own devices

Explore what Mist AI can do – watch a demo, take a tour of the platform in action or listen to a webinar.

 

Copyright © 2023 IDG Communications, Inc.



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