If you haven’t set foot on a college or university campus for some time, you might be amazed by the changes. While the energy and enthusiasm of young adults is ever-present, the way they learn and where they learn has undergone a profound transformation. Mobile devices and applications have become today’s classroom and blackboards. It’s not an exaggeration—connectivity is the most important capability for higher education institutions.
It’s not just connectivity for research on the internet or FaceTiming with friends. Connectivity is needed in classrooms, public spaces, and in living spaces to support applications such as wayfinding and personal safety. Networked devices are also being integrated with building management systems to support energy-saving sustainability goals.
When learning can happen anywhere, your network has to be everywhere. But given time and financial restraints, you need help to build that kind of network.
A recent report from IDC, AI-Enabled Networks Create Connected Campus Experiences, outlines the technological and operational challenges facing today’s higher education institutions and how advancements in AI networking can address them. The report emphasizes the need for colleges and universities to reassess and adapt their IT infrastructure to meet the demands of modern academia, student needs, and campus operations amid changing business models and digital-first strategies.
New digital experiences create networking pressures
A key theme of the report is the increasing demand within higher education for robust, connected, and high-quality digital experiences. This encompasses everything from academic instruction and student services to research support and campus operations. The growth in compute- and bandwidth-intensive research, alongside rising faculty and student expectations for flexible digital tools, is pushing institutions to rethink how technology affects campus life. Higher education is also a target for cybersecurity attacks, so network solutions that proactively protect personal data, research intellectual property, and institutional reputation are crucial.
At Juniper, we believe the essential role of AI and network automation is to enable rich digital-first experiences. We think higher education leaders should move beyond generative use cases of AI toward a broader, more impactful application: AIOps.
Juniper AIOps is a core element and key differentiator of our AI-Native Networking Platform. It ingests data from multiple sources for robust insight into user experiences, including Juniper wireless access points, Ethernet switches, Session Smart™ Routers, WAN edge routers, and SRX Firewalls. Through a combination of robust data science algorithms, rich domain expertise, and Marvis™, the industry’s only AI-Native virtual network assistant (VNA), Juniper AIOps reduces network incidents, help desk tickets, and onsite visits, all without human intervention.
AIOps can transform campus IT operations through predictive analytics, automation, and enhanced security, addressing the chronic issues of IT staffing shortages and evolving cyber threats. AI for IT operations for campus networks is the future of these environments, improving the user experience for everyone who uses them.
AI is already big on campus
The IDC report points out that many institutions are already leveraging AI to enhance learning and administrative operations. Examples include the use of generative AI to create learning content and AI-powered digital assistants for student queries. However, the real potential of AI unfolds when applied on a massive scale, from administrative offices to lecture halls, to create a seamless, integrated digital experience across campus.
To achieve always-on, reliable, secure, and ubiquitous connectivity, higher education institutions must equip their IT teams with advanced tools for on-premises and cloud network management. Without a robust network backbone that can meet high bandwidth demands and an IT staff equipped for automated tools to manage it, institutions risk the quality of user experience and their ability to attract and retain students, faculty, and research funding.
The IDC Spotlight report also frames how Juniper’s networking solutions address the unique challenges faced by higher education institutions. Our approach emphasizes experience-first networking, where security is seamlessly integrated. Solutions such as SD-WAN for linking multiple campus locations and secure automated data center for simplified network operations underscore our focus on creating intelligent, user-centric networks powered by AI.
Juniper’s SD-WAN solution leverages AI-Native insights and automation, and it streamlines deployment processes and significantly diminishes the time required for troubleshooting. In addition, a pioneering tunnel-free architecture eliminates the inefficiencies, scaling limitations, and cost constraints traditionally associated with legacy solutions.
Get the full report
Bringing together insights from detailed research, the report from IDC underscores the present and future of technology in higher education: Schools need connectivity, and connectivity depends on rapid agile networks. Whether or not you step on a campus in the near future, it won’t be long before those school networks will be using AI to automate deployment, management, and ongoing security.
We invite you to read the full report here and reach out to our higher education teams to show you how AIOps can serve your institution.
