Juniper NETWORKS The Leader’s Guide to AI and Network Transformation User Guide
- June 16, 2024
- JUNIPER NETWORKS
Table of Contents
User Guide
The Leader’s Guide to AI and
Network Transformation
Executive Summary
Your users are demanding better connectivity and networks that can support
more devices and applications than they’ve ever had to before. Add in the
growing pressure to reduce IT service costs without sacrificing service
quality and it’s clear that legacy networks simply aren’t up to the challenge.
Legacy networks are deployed in silos, dependent on manual operations, and
don’t offer the scalability and flexibility needed to meet today’s technology
needs. All of those factors increase the likelihood of network downtime, which
can not only give your competitors a leg up, but:
Cost your organization millions e.g., Amazon would lose $35 million in revenue
during a one-hour outage
Negatively impact the user experience e.g., if BT lost connectivity for only
10 seconds during the Olympics, a million viewers would miss the 100MM dash
Interrupt critical operations e.g., an outage on a college campus can keep
thousands of students from taking important tests
Put people’s lives at risk e.g., just 30 seconds of network downtime at an
assisted care facility could result in a patient wandering out the door
In this ebook, we’ll discuss why IT leaders are turning to AI and the cloud to
meet the demands of today’s technology needs (such as hybrid employees and
increased device usage, including Internet of Things), achieve substantial
cost savings and ROI, and take advantage of the latest generation of Wi-Fi:
Wi-Fi 6E.
Cloud Microservices Enable Agility
What is a cloud microservice? It’s a method of developing software
applications or functions as a distributed set of independently deployable and
manageable modules that run various application services. Each service has a
unique function that communicates with others via well-defined application
programming interfaces (APIs).
They differ from standard monolithic software applications in multiple ways:
- Microservices applications are composed of loosely coupled services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently for greater scalability, agility, and fault isolation while a monolithic application is limited to the single integrated unit it was built as
- Microservices enable individual services to scale based on demand, optimizing resource utilization and facilitating faster time-tomarket than their monolithic counterparts
- Microservices offer technology choices, allowing teams to use the most suitable tools for each service
Overall, microservices in the cloud provide more flexibility, resilience, and
adaptability than monolithic applications.
Microservices are built as distributed
application components, allowing services to work independently yet be
deployed, updated, and scaled to support overall application performance
needs. This allows your organization to:
- Deploy new services quickly without disrupting existing services or impacting end users
- Elastically scale each module up or down dynamically without end user intervention
- Upgrade features easily in near real time without network disruption
Additionally, just like when deploying and upgrading services, the failure of
one does not impact the others. 100% API programmability allows services to
communicate and handle failures far more gracefully.
Cloud microservices adoption is driven by scalability, agility, fault
isolation, cost efficiency, flexibility, and streamlined DevOps. It leverages
cloud platforms for resource optimization, faster time-to-market, resilience,
and technology diversity. Microservices enable independent scaling and
development, while cloud services offer infrastructure, automation, and
service management capabilities. Together, they empower organizations to meet
changing demands, reduce costs, and deliver applications efficiently in the
cloud.
The Role of AI in Network Automation
Today’s enterprise networks are incredibly complex. With disparate parts made
up of increasingly distributed users and devices accessing applications hosted
in multiple clouds, management is time consuming and difficult to maintain.
Automation is a primary solution for organizations with goals of improving
network operations and maintaining business continuity across disparate IT
environments. However, standard automation still requires regular human
interaction. That’s where AI comes in.
AI for IT Operation (AIOps) can improve operational efficiency, freeing IT
staff to focus on businessenabling tasks rather than the nondifferentiated
day-to-day operations of the network. Not only that, AI also enables IT staff
to proactively troubleshoot the network by identifying and remediating
problems as they arise before these issues can negatively impact users.
The key role of AI in automation include:
Baseline Monitoring:
AI dynamically understands what the baselines for normal and abnormal behavior
are and sends automatic alerts when there’s a performance or security issue
for precise troubleshooting
Reduction in Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR):
AI automatically determines what steps are needed to resolve issues and either
recommends those steps or automatically implements them, enabling a reduction
in incident MTTR
Automated Support:
AI can be used to notify end users proactively when issues arise and generate
a ticket in both end users’ and vendors’ systems, which significantly
expedites problem resolution. If the issue persists and live support is
required, AI automatically routes the ticket to the appropriate technical
support staff along with the data needed to investigate and resolve the
problem
Overall, AI can manage your network more efficiently, consistently, and
securely than humans can on their own, especially since they have limited work
hours and other priorities.
Technology Integration for Seamless Operations
Having disparate systems and tools inevitably leads to subpar user
experiences, connectivity, and security. Siloed systems and tools don’t share
information and require separate management. So, when something inevitably
goes wrong, it’s not apparent what went wrong or where. Your team needs to go
through the time-consuming task of researching each component to find the
trouble spot, then figure out how to fix it without having a domino effect
that negatively impacts broader network. More tools equals more complexity and
more money and time spent trying to keep your systems up and running.
That’s why it’s important to have a microservices architecture that works
seamlessly across wired, wireless, and SD-WAN. A cloud microservice
architecture streamlines the management process, cutting back on unnecessary
capital and operating costs, as well as optimizing deployment, software
updates, troubleshooting, and security – all without requiring network
downtime.
Add AI to the mix and you’ve got a singular entity monitoring everything,
helping you achieve synergy across your technology systems. AI allows you to
proactively manage troubleshooting and problem resolution to provide the best
user experience possible.
Conclusion
With user expectations and the number of devices connecting to your network
being higher than ever, it’s never been more critical to reinvent your
network. AI can help you optimize your network connectivity, management, and
security all while cutting associated costs. It’s time to revolutionize your
network with AI and the cloud.
About Juniper Networks
At Juniper Networks, we are dedicated to dramatically simplifying network
operations and driving superior experiences for end users. Our solutions
deliver industry-leading insight, automation, security, and AI to drive real
business results. We believe that powering connections will bring us closer
together while empowering us all to solve the world’s greatest challenges of
well-being, sustainability, and equality.
Find out how AI can prepare your network for future growth.
LEARN MORE →
Copyright 2023 Juniper Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Juniper, Junos, and other trademarks listed here are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Juniper Networks assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. Juniper Networks reserves the right to change, modify, transfer, or otherwise revise this publication without notice.
7400185-001-EN Dec.2023
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