We need to get the network out of the way. That’s what Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks, said during his keynote session at the recent Juniper Global Summit. Why? Because he, like many others, believes that we need to get the network out of the way, so we can focus on executing strategies and driving business forward.
This sounds great, but what does it mean to get the network out of the way? Simply stated, it means that we need to build and operate networks in such a way that they become transparent to end-users.
This is important because if businesses are focused on troubleshooting network issues, they aren’t focused on the IT projects that will drive their business forward. The impact? Poor customer experience, decreased productivity and loss of sales, to name a few. And if IT is spending cycles on fixing the network instead of executing digital transformation strategies, the impact extends forward to future revenue and operating margins. In fact, a recent OpenGear survey identified that network outages cost businesses $300,000 to $6 million in downtime each year.
Given that customer experience is so critical to business success, why aren’t network service providers (NSPs) doing more to resolve it? They are, but the challenges they face are complex.
Network operators are grappling with increased traffic pressure, especially in the metro driven by 5G and edge cloud deployments. At the same time, they are dealing with increasing network complexity, ballooning operational costs and rising cyber threats – in many cases, stymied from overcoming these challenges by manual processes and existing do-it-yourself tools that fail to manage network issues adequately.
Figure 1: Juniper Service Provider Strategy Infographic
Overcoming these challenges is possible, and the industry is making progress, but achieving a Self-Driving Network™ vision that results in networks getting out of the way will require network operators to invest in four key areas:
- Building networks that scale with greater agility and intelligence to accommodate ever-increasing changes in traffic patterns and new traffic pressure.
- A cloud-first approach to network virtualization and the delivery of secure, assured services.
- End-to-end security that’s fully integrated with the network to protect end-users, applications and infrastructure.
- Automating everything possible to simplify network operations and seamlessly deliver a best-in-class customer experience.
Doing so will enable Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to not only enable their networks to operate more transparently it will also enable them to accelerate innovation and capitalize on opportunities created by 5G networks, including business and consumer digital transformation.
However, getting the network out of the way, isn’t just the responsibility of communications service providers, managed service providers and IT network operators. Networking vendors and systems integrators have a role to play as well. At Juniper Networks, we have a two-fold strategy to help our customers get the network out of the way:
- Optimize the network and its operation for greater scale and efficiency
- Focus on delivering a best-in-class customer experience to network end-users
We refer to this as Experience-First-Networking. And it’s more than just a strategy; it has become our true north as a company. To accomplish this, we’re focusing on three strategic solution areas:
- Scalable IP Services Fabric Infrastructure provides efficient network growth
- Cloud-First solutions simplify multicloud management and orchestration
- Managed Enterprise Services enable business services growth
Figure 2: Juniper Service Provider Solutions Video
Each of these key solution pillars is supported by Juniper Connected Security to protect the network and its users and Intelligent Automation for the efficient design, deployment, operations and assurance of the network and its services.
These investments are helping network operators to create open and agile network architectures that deliver secure, assured experiences, all while increasing operational efficiencies.
By creating open, agile network architectures, network operators can respond faster to changing traffic patterns and reduce time to market for new services and infrastructure deployment. For example, Juniper’s Scalable IP Services Fabric infrastructure and Intelligent Automation solutions provide greater scalability, agility and flexibility of resource deployment, enabling CSPs to respond to market dynamics, launch new services, scale on-demand and innovate faster and more effectively. And our Juniper Apstra intent-based fabric management solution enables network operators to simplify cloud complexity, reducing up to 90 percent in network infrastructure delivery times.
Network operators can securely deliver new services and ensure the right experience for each by focusing on secure, assured service delivery. Paragon Active Assurance reduces OPEX associated with service delivery rates by automating and reducing failed service delivery. And ICSA Labs recently tested our Connected Security solutions, finding them to be 100 percent effective in malware detection with zero false positives. These capabilities enable operators to improve customer retention and monetize networks with secure and assured service-level agreements (SLAs) that go beyond faster broadband.
Network operators can improve top and bottom-line revenues by delivering more efficient infrastructure and AI-driven automation wherever and whenever business demands require it. Juniper’s flexible licensing and payment options enable CSPs to acquire, deploy and pay for the resources they need when they need them, so networks and their resources grow with the business. And Juniper consistently invests in improving the efficiency and performance of its solutions; network operators using Juniper ASICs have seen a 95% improvement in power efficiency since Juniper’s first generation of Trio chipsets.
Our Experience-First Networking solutions are focused on helping network operators get the network out of the way so together, we can improve customer experience, increase operational efficiency and most importantly, focus on executing our strategies and driving businesses forward.
To learn how Juniper Networks can help you get the network out of the way, watch for future blogs and videos in our upcoming Service Provider Strategy series or visit us at juniper.net/service-provider.
