AI Ushers in Advanced Service Offerings and Profitability for Solution Providers

0:01 foreign

0:03 [Music]

0:06 [Applause]

0:11 this is Doug greenen I'm the publisher

0:13 of Telecom reseller and I'm very pleased

0:15 to have with us again Jeff Aaron who's

0:17 the vice president at Juniper Networks

0:19 Jeff thank you for joining me today oh

0:21 thanks for having me Doug

0:23 well I promise our listeners that we're

0:25 going to make this an exciting AI

0:27 podcast I know that everybody's talking

0:29 all the time about AI we're going to

0:32 talk about AI ushering in advanced

0:34 service offerings and profitability for

0:36 solution providers so I love the idea

0:39 that we were talking today about

0:40 practical AI applications for folks that

0:44 may have joined us the last time we were

0:46 talking about SD branch and the benefits

0:48 it can provide and some of the really

0:50 unique cool things that Juniper Networks

0:52 was doing doing in that area we sort of

0:55 talked a little bit about Ai and now

0:56 we're continuing our conversation so

0:59 Jeff before we get into all that what is

1:01 Juniper Networks yeah um Juniper

1:04 Networks is a as hard a networking

1:06 company but but also I think more more

1:08 recently uh we're transitioning more to

1:10 an AI company you know leveraging AI for

1:13 uh for networking or for it or

1:15 specifically for uh um uh age of and it

1:18 operations or or AI Ops

1:21 um and so we really apply that in

1:22 conjunction with you know the cloud to

1:24 really bring a whole host of benefits to

1:27 um uh other resellers or the and their

1:29 end users everything from better

1:31 automation uh lower cost savings better

1:33 insight into actual user experiences to

1:36 just better assurance that you know the

1:38 network and the service that you want to

1:40 deliver is actually the the network and

1:41 the service you are delivering in as you

1:43 said AI is is core to all of that and um

1:46 and that's why we're talking about it

1:47 today

1:48 so you know AI as we're just talking

1:50 about it's ubiquitous it's everywhere

1:52 we're talking about it all the time

1:54 um can you provide more context in how

1:56 AI is being utilized in the networking

1:59 space

2:00 yeah yeah for sure and I I think uh you

2:03 kind of touched on it a little bit it's

2:04 it's applied AI right you know yeah

2:07 obviously AI is taking over and having

2:09 huge benefits from Healthcare to you

2:12 know edu and what we're talking about

2:14 here is primarily around AI operations

2:16 right and uh you know I kind of alluded

2:18 to the the three buzzwords um uh

2:21 automation insight and Assurance because

2:23 that's really where we see AI providing

2:25 the most value right automation around

2:28 you know faster provisioning or

2:30 self-driving uh corrective uh networks

2:33 that actually fix themselves uh insight

2:36 into not just you know is the network

2:37 working but what is the actual

2:39 experience that Doug or Jeff is having

2:41 on the network right you know because

2:43 just because the Network's up doesn't

2:44 mean it's actually good

2:46 um and then lastly Assurance you know

2:48 like I said assurance that you know

2:49 you're out there delivering the network

2:51 expectations you want and that um you

2:54 know your users are getting you know the

2:56 the the services delivered to them that

2:58 that they that they need to do their

2:59 jobs so that's really where AI comes

3:01 into being

3:02 so what challenges do you do solution

3:05 providers face currently that can that

3:08 you think AI can help address

3:10 yeah I mean uh solution providers like

3:13 everyone like every it organization is

3:15 trying to do more with less right um I

3:17 don't think that's that's new and if if

3:19 anything is actually becoming more

3:20 pronounced and so being able to do

3:22 automation

3:24 um you know to to eliminate a lot of

3:26 these you know mundane or or or tactical

3:29 tasks certainly goes a long way right as

3:32 part of that it also lets them shift to

3:34 more strategic you know value value

3:35 added right you know um you know taking

3:38 the word VAR you know value add is is is

3:42 key to the to that particular you know

3:44 nomenclature and so again it's not just

3:46 about offering circuits or um you know

3:49 or even you know management constructs

3:50 again how do you add more value in terms

3:52 of better analytics

3:54 um you know better slas

3:56 um Advanced Services like location or um

3:59 you know Advanced Security Services

4:01 again AI is core to all of that and so

4:04 you know that way you know for a

4:06 solution provider it's again not only

4:08 are you approving your own operations

4:10 but how do you add more deliver more

4:11 value to your end users and AI is core

4:14 to that

4:15 so you know what is let's talk about

4:17 Juniper what is your approach in this

4:19 space yeah um so good question so um you

4:23 know taking a little bit walk down

4:24 memory lane uh you know Juniper had

4:26 acquired a company called Mist uh about

4:27 four years ago actually I I was at Miss

4:29 at the time and ostensibly that you know

4:32 people said well hey Jennifer's you know

4:34 bringing Wireless into their portfolio

4:35 but it was it was more than that

4:37 obviously you know it was bringing a

4:39 modern microservices Cloud coupled with

4:41 an AI engine right so um you know the at

4:44 that instance you know the wireless was

4:46 built from the ground up to focus on AI

4:48 driven operations right pulling in the

4:50 right data

4:51 um you know applying the right domain

4:53 expertise

4:54 um you know introducing a virtual

4:56 Network assistant that can answer

4:57 questions on par with a human that was

4:59 all part of the missed acquisition and

5:02 it started with wireless but you know

5:03 the Juniper Vision was to extend that

5:05 across the whole

5:07 um you know the whole Enterprise

5:07 portfolio so shortly after we brought

5:10 wired access into the equation with our

5:12 ex platform we added um acquired a

5:14 company called 128t and added sd-wan we

5:17 brought in some of the security elements

5:18 in fact we just launched a knack

5:19 solution last week so again the whole

5:22 Vision here is to do client to Cloud AI

5:25 driven operations so that if something

5:27 goes wrong like this call right you know

5:29 the call between me and you goes down a

5:32 solution provider can easily say

5:34 um it was the Wi-Fi it was the wired

5:36 Network it was the WAN it was this

5:39 application it was the cloud where was

5:40 the problem

5:42 um so we can go fix it or even better

5:44 you know it could predict problems like

5:46 you know certain characteristics are

5:47 happening where it looks like Doug and

5:49 Jeff's you know video call is going to

5:50 go down you know how do we self drive

5:52 around that to make sure that they don't

5:54 realize that's a problem and so that's

5:56 Jennifer's vision and that's how we've

5:58 implemented you know really building

5:59 this from the ground up leveraging a

6:01 modern Cloud bringing in a full stack

6:03 solution pulling in the right data and

6:05 and really delivering end-to-end

6:07 automation insight and insurance you

6:09 know that's what we're doing

6:10 so do you actually have ai enabled

6:13 products already in your portfolio yeah

6:15 for sure um so like we mentioned um you

6:18 know the the wireless access

6:19 um you know our access points are all

6:21 managed via the Miss cloud and missed AI

6:22 engine so I'll let you do things like

6:25 customizable service levels and event

6:27 correlation and we use our virtual

6:29 Network assistant to answer questions

6:30 like what was wrong with Doug's Wi-Fi or

6:33 why was the Wi-Fi in the conference room

6:34 not working uh since then we had our

6:37 wired access portfolio so that's our ex

6:39 family that's now managedy the cloud and

6:41 again same thing you can do sles and

6:43 event correlation and tie it together

6:44 with the wireless domain our sd-wan

6:47 portfolio is AI driven so again same

6:49 Cloud same AI engine so you can

6:51 correlate all these issues across all

6:53 these domains for for better experiences

6:55 as well as some of our security elements

6:57 like uh like we said we just introduced

6:59 a new Knack solution last week again

7:01 common Cloud common AI engines so you're

7:04 starting to see the themes there that we

7:06 want to bring everything together so you

7:07 can have all your intelligence together

7:08 for better Interactive between the

7:11 solutions but those are some of the

7:12 examples of assuming our AI driven

7:14 Solutions as well as some of our support

7:16 uh Solutions as well also leverage AI

7:18 for better troubleshooting proactive

7:20 rma's that kind of thing

7:22 so what type of end use End customer

7:25 benefits do you see integrating into a

7:27 missed Cloud solution

7:29 yeah um so you know we have two types of

7:32 customers right there's our the people

7:34 that buy our product which are mostly

7:36 The Operators or the solution providers

7:37 and for them it's all about you know how

7:39 do you lower Opex how do you avoid fat

7:41 finger errors how do you uh you know add

7:43 more value in terms of better services

7:45 to their end users right so that could

7:47 be the student that shows up on

7:49 Dartmouth campus or you know that could

7:51 be a patient that shows up at a VA

7:54 Hospital right or just you know a coder

7:56 that shows up at you know Seagate or

7:58 nvidia's campus headquarters right

8:00 um and for them it's just about is the

8:02 network reliable and is it delivering me

8:04 a good experience right um and so that

8:06 could be measured in you know less

8:07 trouble tickets like servicenow

8:09 eliminated over 90 of their trumpet

8:10 tickets to just less on-site visits to

8:13 go to go fix problems um you know

8:15 manifests itself in different ways but

8:17 ultimately it's just about is the

8:18 network more reliable is it delivering a

8:20 better experience and is it you know a

8:23 more cost effective to run and maintain

8:26 and I I see in there a few examples do

8:29 you have more

8:30 yeah um so you know another great

8:32 example is uh you know the Gap right you

8:34 know they were able to eliminate 85

8:36 percent of their truck rolls to their

8:38 stores right so you know that's a great

8:40 example of that's just a cost savings

8:42 um for them to go out and and fix things

8:44 but also if the stores go down that

8:46 means their Shoppers have a bad

8:47 experience right that means you know the

8:49 employees have a better experience the

8:50 point of sale devices don't work and

8:52 again that could be a wireless issue it

8:54 could be the Lan right uh issue as well

8:56 so the quicker you can go and identify

8:59 those problems uh the more cost savings

9:01 you can drive and ultimately the more

9:03 more um you know benefits you can

9:04 deliver so that's another great example

9:06 of a you know customer that that turned

9:09 to us

9:10 um Dartmouth you know I mentioned them

9:11 before again they wanted their students

9:13 to have a great experience whether

9:15 they're sharing Xboxes in their dorms to

9:18 whether they're walking across campus

9:20 um or you know involved in some kind of

9:22 project where they need to access you

9:24 know uh data you know halfway across the

9:26 world right

9:27 um so that's an example where again they

9:29 turn to an AI driven Network from

9:30 juniper to really solve you know a

9:33 variety of those needs so it sounds like

9:35 one of the big takeaways today is you

9:37 know AI is not just a theoretical thing

9:40 and I can sort of fool around with it

9:42 it's something I can actually go and

9:44 sell today and it solves and and adds

9:47 value today for uh for end users or

9:50 customers yeah absolutely right and and

9:53 you know again even our Solutions

9:55 providers or or or sellers in general

9:57 it's not like they're necessarily

9:59 selling the AI but they're selling the

10:01 benefits of AI

10:03 um and that's what I think you know most

10:04 end users care about is you know how

10:06 does it drive more business benefits how

10:07 does it lower cost and it's our job to

10:09 make sure that it's using Ai and using

10:11 it correctly right so our customers

10:14 don't necessarily need to know is is it

10:16 using Mutual information or Bayesian

10:17 influence or deep learning or neural

10:20 networks uh we're happy to explain it to

10:22 show you know what's using but it's more

10:24 about do they trust the results and they

10:26 get value out of it and the answer is

10:27 yes it's real it's been shipping for

10:30 several years

10:32 um and the the results and benefits are

10:34 extremely quantifiable

10:36 you know Jeff I'm so happy that we're

10:38 we're actually sort of finishing up sort

10:40 of what was AI month here and uh and our

10:43 podcast the small little podcast series

10:45 with you with what you just said because

10:47 at the end of the day it's solution

10:50 selling not really AI selling

10:53 yeah that's exactly right and and we

10:55 kind of talked about it earlier it's

10:56 it's applied AI right AI is a means to

10:59 an end it's a series of Technologies it

11:02 is a buzzword there's a lot of AI

11:04 washing out there and like we said

11:06 ultimately it's about you know do you

11:07 trust the results and are they

11:10 delivering you value

11:11 um and you know you know we pointed AI

11:14 as a way to deliver that in a

11:15 differentiated way for Juniper but yeah

11:17 ultimately it's the results that you get

11:18 out of it and I really enjoyed the you

11:21 know hearing about these examples of you

11:23 know retail of education and so on where

11:26 you know the customer the student

11:28 whoever is the user they're not really

11:30 worried hey this was AI driven there

11:32 were they're like hey this was a great

11:34 experience this really helped me for

11:37 sure

11:38 where can we learn more about Juniper

11:39 Networks yeah so obviously you know

11:41 jennifer.net is a great place to start

11:43 um if you're interested a little bit

11:45 more specific about Ai and AI Ops uh you

11:47 know jim.net AI Ops is a good place to

11:50 go where we talk a little bit about you

11:52 know what that means to us

11:54 um you know how you differentiate and

11:56 then you know kind of launch pads there

11:58 into specific Solutions and specific

12:00 verticals and how you leverage it so I

12:02 think that's probably a really good

12:03 place to go and uh and and uh you know

12:06 to start your journey to learn more

12:08 about it well Jeff I really want to

12:10 thank you this has been very interesting

12:12 I'm so happy to be able to provide our

12:14 listeners with very practical ideas on

12:16 how they could get going today I know

12:18 we're going to talk soon again but for

12:20 now thanks very much indeed awesome

12:22 always a pleasure Doug appreciate it

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