Juniper® Paragon Automation as a Service is LIVE. Introduced last year when we announced our intent to reimagine network automation, this first-of-its kind solution is now available to communication service providers (CSPs) and enterprises worldwide. This is nothing short of a revolution in WAN automation. Here are four reasons why.
Reason #1: Fast and simple rollout, from months to minutes
In a recent Heavy Reading survey, 81% of CSPs said automation is essential to stay competitive and keep pace with growing operational requirements; yet just 18% have deployed closed-loop automation. What’s the hold-up? High costs and the complexity of “do-it-yourself” automation projects that take too long to roll out—let alone start delivering business outcomes and ROI. It’s no wonder 60% of DIY automation projects fail, despite massive investment in time, money and hard-to-find developer skills.
This is where cloud shines. Juniper Networks’ Paragon Automation is now LIVE in a new cloud-delivered package. No longer do customers need to spend months setting up an automation infrastructure. They can simply connect their devices using Outbound SSH and start automating in minutes. Cloud-delivered automation is also much simpler to sustain, since there is no overhead infrastructure to manage, no additional sub-components to maintain, no need for additional IT resources and no need to try to turn skilled network engineers into developers. It’s also cheaper. According to a 2022 Analysys Mason study, a cloud-delivered network automation approach results in 70% faster implementation compared to DIY automation, with 40% lower deployment and maintenance costs.
Reason #2: Use cases that really solve business problems, not point products
At the end of the day, what matters most to customers investing in automation is business outcomes, including:
- Improving operational productivity by automating and speeding up daily manual tasks such as onboarding, provisioning, compliance, upgrades and more in a scalable, repeatable way
- Reducing human errors
- Improving network performance by spotting and resolving issues before they impact service experience
- Reducing network CapEx/OpEx through intelligent capacity planning and dynamic traffic optimization
- Ensuring a network that’s always secure and trusted
However, today’s market offerings are point products that customers need to stitch together and integrate themselves before they can realize those outcomes. The reality is that most never do.
Juniper is changing that. We’re delivering Paragon Automation as a Service with a “use case” model, where each use case is mapped to business outcomes. Each use case is self-contained and integrated to solve specific automation problems, without needing other components. For example, network observability includes not just device observability, but network and service layers as well. And because it’s focused on business outcomes, the service doesn’t throw out thousands of alarms and alerts like a traditional EMS/NMS. Instead, it turns network data into actionable insights, focusing on what needs to be done first based on how an issue impacts the customer experience.
All customers have different problems they want to focus on and each are at different stages of their automation journeys. With Paragon Automation as a Service, customers can start with one use case, show outcomes in days and move on to the next. They can also choose their own adventure – no need to buy monolithic systems or point products. Customers can simply use what they need and pay for what they use, in a pay-as-you-grow model.
In this initial release, there are three use cases to choose from to automate Juniper ACX7000 devices:
- Device Lifecycle Management with Automated Onboarding: Onboarding new devices is usually a complex, manual effort that requires extensive training. To no surprise, it’s among the most time-consuming, error-prone and expensive operational tasks. Now, with Paragon’s step-by-step guidance, even junior-level workers can onboard devices in minutes via their smartphones –without errors. Once connected, the Paragon cloud service handles provisioning, health and performance checks, connectivity testing and more. This simplified automation extends through the day-2 device lifecycle, including software upgrades, configuration management and more.
- Network Observability: Paragon provides deep visibility and insight, helping operations teams quickly zero in on what matters. With a simple, streamlined dashboard, even junior-level NOC staff can see the health of all devices, networks and services at a glance. Paragon’s AI-enabled analytics filter out the noise, showing exactly what’s wrong and how to fix it—without having to know custom rules or DIY scripts. Paragon’s AI/ML algorithms can even spot problems that humans miss, like a bad cable degrading performance or an overheated interface dropping packets.
- Network Trust: Use Paragon to automatically enforce trust and integrity in the network, and spot compliance deviations before they turn into serious threats. On day-1 onboarding, Paragon uses the embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) silicon in ACX7000 devices to perform hardware and software integrity checks, validating that the device is genuine and hasn’t been tampered with. Then, on an ongoing basis, it provides real-time visibility into trust and compliance with easy-to-understand trust scores for every device. At a glance, teams can check compliance and drill down into any deviations, with detailed steps to resolve issues.
These use cases are available now. In the coming months, cloud-delivered Paragon Automation for Active Assurance, WAN AIOps and Service Orchestration will be available as well.
Reason #3: Built for AI from the ground up
There’s no debate: wherever organizations have massive and complex data, AI/ML can help make sense of it and speed the path to business outcomes. Managing and automating IP networks is no exception. However, building a solid AI/ML foundation requires a completely new architecture at both the infrastructure and application layer. This means older-generation products retrofitted with so-claimed AI/ML capabilities will only go so far. Building a true AI/ML platform for fast innovation in this space requires starting from ground up. And that’s what we’ve done with Paragon Automation as a Service.
The software architecture has been redesigned to enable AI/ML pipelines for data processing, training and model validation at the infrastructure and application layers, built on the cloud. In fact, cloud is the only way to drive continuous AI/ML innovation, since it needs data at scale to build accurate network models and apply lessons learned from one customer’s anonymized data to others. This is collective innovation at speed.
With Paragon Automation as a Service, we’re extending Juniper’s AIOps leadership to WAN networks, bringing Juniper Mist AI infrastructure and models to the WAN domain. For example, in the current release, we’ve harnessed the ML models Mist uses to detect bad copper cables and applied them to fiber optics that are more prevalent in the WAN domain. This is just the beginning. Juniper is focused on creating the right software foundation for WAN AIOps through the next decade, so look for many more AI/ML use cases to come!
Reason #4: “Easy button” with a totally reimagined user interface
Traditional automation products are complex to use, as many customers will validate. The “user experience” they offer almost feels like it was developed by developers, for developers. This means customers need lots of training and advanced skills to operate them—skills that are increasingly difficult to find and expensive to retain.
Paragon Automation as a Service, on the other hand, has a completely reimagined UX/UI to help non-experts succeed. Our aim is to put an “easy button” on daily operational tasks. We’ve invested heavily in UX research and design to build a UI based on real personas in customers’ NOC, field, planning and architecture teams. Paragon recreates their day-to-day operational flows based on what they need to get done first and fast—especially everything that might impact end users’ network/service experience.
With intuitive workflows, guided scenarios, pre-built monitoring and data-driven UX analytics, Paragon Automation as a Service helps even junior-level staff perform tasks in minutes and get it right the first time.
Start Automating Now
See it to believe it, or just ask those who’ve already tried it. “Juniper Paragon Automation’s cloud-delivered service is easy to use and was up and running in no time,” says an engineer with one North American operator. “It allows us to cut down field technician errors drastically and ensures our networks are configured right the first time.”
Masayuki Kayahara, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Department, NEC adds, “Many CSPs need to accelerate their journey to full autonomous networks. With Paragon Automation, Juniper Networks is once again disrupting the industry and allowing CSPs to quickly benefit from an intuitive cloud-delivered solution covering a large range of automation use cases… We are delighted to empower our customers with fast device onboarding, guaranteed network service quality and ultimately closed-loop automation.”
It’s all part of Juniper’s commitment to help CSPs deliver on the promise of Experience-First Networking in a complex digital world. First, we reimagined metro networks with Cloud Metro. Now, we’re reinventing automation for simplicity and speed. And it’s easier than ever to get started. For a limited time, buy a Juniper ACX7000 platform and get Paragon Automation as a Service startup package free for up to three years (terms and conditions apply).
As per Heavy Reading’s latest survey, 93% of Tier 2/3 CSPs say they’d be ready to adopt WAN automation from the cloud. Even larger CSPs are increasingly open to consuming some if not all use cases from the cloud. The journey might take multiple steps and hybrid forms, but the path to cloud is now inevitable. At Juniper, we support customers no matter which path they choose, and that principle will continue to guide Paragon Automation. Stay tuned for more.
To learn about our first Paragon Automation as a Service release:
- Watch this video demonstrating the power and simplicity of Paragon’s user interface.
- Attend The Future of Network Automation webinar on August 30th.
- Request a meeting at DTW in September.
- Visit the Paragon Automation website.
- Review the Paragon Automation Service Description.
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