A Look Back (and forward) at Juniper’s AI-Driven SD-WAN Journey
Partner Update

Happy 1/28 Day!

Prior to its acquisition by Juniper Networks, 128 Technology celebrated each year on 1/28 – and together, we’re keeping the tradition alive! This anniversary is especially exciting as it’s been just over one year since the companies came together. So, it’s the perfect occasion to look back at what has been achieved in this short period of time and discuss the more exciting things that are still yet to come.

To do this, we spoke with key members of the team (now all part of the AI-Driven Enterprise business unit at Juniper) to get their insights, including Patrick MeLampy, Juniper Fellow and former co-founder and COO of 128 Technology; Mike Baj, VP of Engineering at Juniper and former co-founder and VP of Engineering at 128T; Sujai Hajela, EVP, AI-Driven Enterprise; and Kevin Klett, Senior Director of Product Management at Juniper and former VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at 128T.

The Path to Rapid Success 

After progressing through the Mist acquisition a few years ago, it was interesting to be on the other side of the equation this time. Not surprisingly, though, the 128T folks had many of the same reactions as the Mist counterparts in the first year, especially in regard to the pace of integration.

As Mike Baj noted, “…it seems like only yesterday we were finalizing the deal. Now here we are, a fully integrated part of Juniper. Some companies take years to even work together, let alone delivering an integrated solution to the market. We’ve accomplished both in only a year.”

In just a few months after the acquisition, Juniper launched the first step toward product integration – WAN Assurance. This is a cloud offering driven by Mist AI that simplifies Day 2 SD-WAN operations with insights, proactive anomaly detection/remediation and automated troubleshooting. With WAN Assurance, IT users get actionable insights into device, WAN and application health root causes that are impacting the end-user experience, allowing users to find and remediate issues faster than ever before.

According to Patrick, “…the power of being able to not only easily detect a problem, but to have the system guide you to a resolution, cannot be understated. AI-directed detection, troubleshooting and resolution with WAN Assurance is a game changer and will really improve our customers’ and partners’ experiences.”

Earlier this month, the team further enhanced the portfolio with new secure AI-driven SD-WAN capabilities managed via the Mist Cloud. This includes Day 0/1 operations, as well as enhanced security elements like IDS/IPS and URL filtering. To see these features live, tune in to Networking Field Day 27 today where Juniper will be showing them off.

Patrick shared that the quick integration and collaboration is a testament to just how well-aligned the two companies are and how complementary the technology is to each other.

“We learned a lot from the Mist acquisition, which we naturally applied this time around,” said Sujai.  “Everything from systems integration to sales enablement to product delivery were streamlined, enabling us to deliver amazing and impactful new features in record time”

A Common Vision

Key to the above is the fact that both companies shared a common vision around client-to-cloud AIOps, managed via the Mist Cloud. Mist brought the cloud and AI engine to the table and 128T delivered unsurpassed insight and control thanks to its unique Session Smart Routing technology.

“This was the perfect marriage,” said Kevin. “By coming together, both solutions were made stronger, resulting in an AI-driven SD-WAN solution unlike anything the industry has seen prior.”

Patrick added, “It has always been our vision to leverage the data the Session Smart Router collects about network information to not only influence routing decisions, but to ‘self-heal’ networks.” Mike added, “With Mist AI at our disposal, including the only AI-driven virtual assistant, Marvis, we can do things quicker, easier and more cost effectively than ever before – often before users even knew a problem existed.”

The Best is Yet to Come

Both teams share the same sentiment: Juniper is continuing to lead the industry through innovation and the best is yet to come. Juniper continues to embrace agility and rethink how to deliver meaningful, game-changing products that deliver the best user experiences.

And the industry is taking notice. For example, Juniper has already won several prestigious industry awards in this space, including two Light Reading Leading Lights awards for Best Deal Maker and Most Innovative SD-WAN Product/Service Evolution. Earlier this month, Juniper was also awarded a BIG Innovation Award for AI-driven SD-WAN. In addition, Juniper was named a Visionary in the most recent Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for WAN Edge Infrastructure, and plans to follow the same playbook that propelled us into the Leader’s quadrant in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure shortly after the acquisition of Mist and in 2021, too.

But let’s not forget the customers. In the past year alone, Juniper added marquee customers including a global Fortune 10 retail company, a global energy producer and a growing number of managed service providers focused on evolving their customer experience.

“Juniper’s full stack AI-driven enterprise portfolio provides unsurpassed insight, automation, and cost savings, resulting in the absolute best user and operator experiences,” said Sujai. “As one team, with one vision and one complete product portfolio, we will continue to lead and innovate, and are happy to go toe-to-toe with any networking vendor with this portfolio behind us.”

Mike made the perfect analogy, “…similar to how the stock market changed when trading algorithms and AI were introduced, the same will happen in the world of networking with Juniper’s wired, wireless and SD-WAN solutions all driven by Mist AI. A new dawn of networking is here and Juniper is leading the way.”

Lightning-quick integration. Industry recognition. Amazing new (and existing) customers. 2021 was quite a year and we can’t wait to see what 2022 will bring.

Original post here.