Hewlett Packard Enterprise has agreed to buy Juniper Networks, a 14 billion deal that would merge two legacy network-operations companies as they seek to capitalize on the rise of generative artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the companies were nearing a deal.

New research from Juniper Networks has found a growing appetite from both enterprises and consumers to use AI technologies. Juniper surveyed 700 global IT decision-makers for its research and found that most (67%) executives have AI as a top strategic priority for 2021. However, integrating AI remains a challenge. "As a CIO, when I see so much interest in an emerging technology, I always need to remind people there are pitfalls if it's not managed correctly. For artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that there is light at the end of the challenge-filled tunnel, and significant potential to generate even more meaningful and incredible outcomes than we've seen so far."

It's human nature to choose the path of least resistance, as we're most comfortable with what we already know. Take the example of, "No one ever got fired for buying Cisco." But there comes a point in time when inaction becomes the greatest risk of all. Market transitions are real, and every product has a life cycle. Understanding these transitions and a vendor's product strategy is just as important--or sometimes more important--than selecting a specific company.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most disruptive innovation of our lifetime. Its adoption has grown 60 percent in the last year, according to an April 2020 report by Narrative Science. The report's authors say the technology is having a "significant and imminent impact on everything from company strategy, to business operations, to job functions." So what are some of AI's implications in the new normal, one in which American entrepreneurs find themselves saving cash, working from home and wearing masks everywhere they go? Currently, for entrepreneurs, the most popular AI-powered solutions deal with predictive analytics (24 percent), machine learning (21 percent), language processing (14 percent) and voice recognition and response (14 percent), according to the same Narrative Science report.

Juniper Networks has further expanded several AI solutions within its Mist portfolio. The improvements, such as the Mist WAN Assurance tool and an update to the Marvis AI engine, will make it easier for businesses to automatically detect network problems and resolve connectivity issues. Juniper Networks is strongly committing to AI for detecting problems within corporate networks and the underlying connections. The portfolio of Mist, which was acquired last year, has played a key role. With the tools of Mist, companies are able to automatically detect and solve network problems in (wireless) networks.

Smartphones are commonly used for storing and analyzing data obtained from wearable devices. The rapid growth of the smartphone industry has increased the production of android & IoT-enabled responsive and user-friendly applications for wearable devices. Other factors that drive market growth include rapid urbanization and increasing disposable incomes in developing economies, which determine future trends in wearable technology.

Juniper Networks rolled out Mist's artificial intelligence (AI) engine across wired and wireless networks today to kick off its annual Nxtwork event. It's the first step in what Juniper calls the "AI-driven enterprise" that will use AI and automation to troubleshoot and self-correct across the entire IT environment. "For that we mean wireless access, wired access, and ultimately data centers as well as SD-WAN with a security overlay on top of that," said Jeff Aaron, VP of enterprise marketing at Juniper Networks. Juniper acquired wireless LAN startup Mist Systems for $405 million earlier this year. In addition to the wireless technology, the deal gave Juniper an in-house AI engine.

At its NXTWORK conference in Las Vegas, Juniper Networks announced on Monday new capabilities for its Mist and Contrail solutions that were designed to help its enterprise customers. For Mist, Juniper announced what it claimed was the first "AI Driven Self Diving Network" for enterprises that use Mist's AI engine. It also uses Mist's microservices cloud to streamline IT operations to help simplify troubleshooting across both wired and wireless networks. Using Mist's integrated AI-engine, which is called Marvis, the Mist platform identifies the root cause of issues across various IT domains, such as WLAN, LAN, WAN and security, and automatically resolves them when possible. If the issue is outside the domain of the access network, Marvis will provide a set of recommended actions to help IT managers resolve their issues.

In the digital age, network management has grown increasingly complicated and at an almost breakneck speed. Next-generation networks promise legions of microservices and network management challenges that most experts believe can only be handled by some form of network management automation, be it via deterministic means or through AI. On October 10 in Las Vegas, Juniper Networks gathered industry analysts to discuss the company's vision for next-generation networks. In light of the continued slow pace of adoption of software-defined networks (SDN) and network automation, it was interesting that the theme of the discussions was more about people and processes and less about cutting-edge technology. In essence, Juniper Networks feels that vendor solutions are not matching up well to where they have to run and who is supposed to run them.

Any AI effort will rely on three main building blocks: data, infrastructure, and talent. The following is a guest post by Rita C. Waite, a Growth Strategy & Investments Manager at Juniper Networks. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing how businesses operate across all sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, IT, and transportation. Advancements in AI over the last decade are presenting opportunities for companies to automate business processes, transform customer experiences, and differentiate products offerings. AI pioneers like Google and Amazon, who have adopted these new technologies to create a growing competitive advantage, have already witnessed bottom-line benefits from their AI strategies.