Just as a great wine begins with great grapes, great AI requires great data. An AI-Native network is built on a foundation of the right great data. In this post, we explore stage one on our Self-Driving Network™ journey: data—the critical ingredient for an intelligent AI-driven network.
From uptime to user experience
Traditional network management often focuses on monitoring the basic metrics of the network devices, like uptime, CPU utilization, memory, and bandwidth. At Juniper, we believe that’s only half the story. We go beyond simply keeping the network running; we focus on ensuring exceptional end-to-end, client-to-cloud experiences for every user on the network. We don’t just ask, “Is the network up?” We ask, “How are users experiencing the network?”. This user-centric philosophy guides our entire approach to data collection and analysis. We start with user experience minutes, capturing real-time insights into how users are experiencing the network and then using data science to predict and optimize the user experience. Ultimately, the value of a network lies in its ability to empower users and drive business outcomes. This is critical to enabling each successive stage of a journey to the Self-Driving Network.
The power of collaboration
So, how does Juniper ensure we’re collecting relevant data to optimize the user experience? It starts with our data scientists working closely with our customer success teams, who are our domain experts and a proxy for our enterprise customers. No-one better understands the real-world challenges our customers face than our customer success teams—so, this collaboration is essential. By understanding the specific pain points of our customers and their use cases, we can identify the most valuable data for training and refining our AI models.
It’s this deep understanding that enables us to build truly effective solutions. If an AI vendor’s data science and customer success teams are not working together using their own cloud AIOps solution, it’s safe to say they haven’t yet started their AI journey. They’re missing the crucial link between technology and real-world application.
Real-time data to real-time insights
With a clear understanding of customer needs, we can focus on collecting rich data in real-time from network devices that have been optimized to send telemetry data to a cloud architecture running microservices. At Juniper, we’ve been collecting and refining data for over a decade—from access points (APs), routers, switches, firewalls, and client devices. For example, we collect over 150 real-time wireless user states through streaming telemetry from APs. This constant stream of telemetry is aggregated in the cloud and analyzed by Mist AI™. It’s truly where the magic happens. By analyzing this rich data set, Mist AI can provide IT teams with immediate, actionable insights. And with the closed-loop customer service feedback, it continuously learns and improves, delivering increasingly accurate insights and recommendations.
Expanding the data ecosystem
But we don’t stop there. With a strong partner ecosystem and 100% open APIs, we’re able to glean data from more sources, further enhancing functionality and extending insights. For example, Marvis® Application Experience Insights integrates Zoom and Microsoft® Teams meeting data with Juniper network data to pinpoint the root cause of poor video experiences—even predicting call quality before the call begins. This proactive approach not only assures exceptional collaboration experiences for users but also frees up IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
The next step: transforming data into actionable insights
Once you have the right data in the cloud, the real magic begins—turning that data into actionable insights. In our next post, we’ll explore how we transform raw data into the intelligence that drives the Self-Driving Network, enabling proactive problem-solving, optimized resource allocation and, ultimately, a superior user experience.
Where does your organization sit on this journey to the Self-Driving Network? Wherever you are, Juniper can help you take the next step.
Additional blogs in this series
Part 1 (Overview): A journey to the Self-Driving Network™ is built on trust in AI
