the Mist™ platform WAN Assurance

Overview:

The Mist™ platform WAN Assurance cloud service simplifies network deployment and operations, improves visibility into end-user experiences, and shortens the mean time to repair SD-WAN issues. By combining data and intelligence from Mist AI, Session Smart Routers, and SRX Series Services Gateways, Juniper provides industry-leading network automation and insight for optimum user, device, and application experiences in branch and remote locations.

Key Features

Visibility into WAN user experiences with application-based context
End-to-end user impact analyses based on WLAN, LAN, and WAN telemetry data
Automated identification and correction of gateway misconfigurations and faulty interfaces
Health insights into Session Smart Routers, SRX Series Services Gateways, and WAN links
Simplified configuration and deployment of Session Smart Routers

Product Description

the Mist™ platform cloud services are moving IT operations closer to the intelligent Self-Driving Network™ in the era of the AI-Driven Enterprise. the Mist™ platform WAN Assurance delivers simpler operations, shorter mean time to repair, and better visibility into end-user experiences across the WAN.

the Mist™ platform WAN Assurance is a cloud service that brings automated operations and service levels to the enterprise access layer at the WAN edge. WAN Assurance is a key component of the Juniper AI-Driven SD-WAN solution, enabling IT teams to deliver superior user experiences across the WAN. When used in conjunction with the Mist™ platform Wired and Wireless Assurance, the service transforms and unites all operations across network switches, IoT devices, access points, servers, printers, and other equipment. Juniper^® Session Smart™ Routers and Juniper^® SRX Series Services Gateways provide rich streaming telemetry that enables application health, WAN link health, and gateway health metrics and anomaly detection.

The Mist™ platform engine and virtual network assistant further simplify troubleshooting and streamline the helpdesk with self-driving actions that automatically remediate issues. The Marvis Virtual Network Assistant turns insights into actions and fundamentally transforms IT operations from reactive troubleshooting to proactive remediation.

the Mist™ platform cloud services are 100% programmable using open APIs for full automation and/or integration with your IT applications.

Architecture and Key Components:

Figure 1: Mist Wan Architecture

WAN Service-Level Experiences (SLEs)

Monitor and enforce service-level experiences (SLEs) using key metrics on application response times, WAN link status, gateway health, and other network conditions. Gain insights into how these metrics impact end-user experiences and use them to proactively identify the root causes of any service degradation.

AI-Driven Application Insights

AI-powered intelligence assesses the impact of network latency, jitter, packet loss, and other network metrics on end-user experiences by application. It also provides insights into gateway health, including CPU and memory consumption and link-utilization levels.

Anomaly Detection for WAN Gateways

When combined with the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA) service, WAN Assurance proactively detects WAN gateway anomalies to identify and resolve application issues before they impact users.

Marvis for WAN

The Marvis conversational interface allows IT teams to use natural language to quickly get the networking and troubleshooting answers they need. They can pose questions like, “Why is my user’s video chat application experience bad?” and receive prompt and accurate replies from the VNA.

Cloud-Based Onboarding

Centrally configure and onboard your SD-WAN, including WAN links and service and security policies, using The Mist™ platform Cloud. Zero touch provisioning (ZTP) simplifies site deployments, while configuration templates enable rapid-scale implementation of your entire distributed SD-WAN.

Features and Benefits:

WAN Service-Level Expectations (SLEs)

Get operational visibility into user WAN experiences with SLEs for Session Smart Routers or SRX Series Services Gateways. Measure the impact of both gateway and WAN circuit health on end-user application experiences. A WAN Link Health SLE, which accounts for network congestion, cable issues, and ISP network availability, delivers insights into how these factors are affecting a given network user or application. The Mist™ platform SLE dashboard helps to identify root causes of suboptimal application experiences in just a few clicks and proactively isolate “needle-in-a-haystack” problems.

WAN Insights Driven by Mist AI

Know exactly how Session Smart Routers or SRX Series gateways are performing with metrics and insights down to the port level. These include CPU, memory utilization, bytes transferred, traffic utilization, and power draw. WAN Assurance also logs gateway events, like configuration changes and system alerts. WAN and IPsec utilization insights tell you how much traffic traverses your encrypted tunnel versus your local breakout. You also get visibility into per-user and per-application performance and experiences.

Marvis, the AI-Driven Virtual Network Assistant for WAN

Marvis Virtual Network Assistant moves IT operations closer to the Self-Driving Network™ with simplified troubleshooting and performance analysis for helpdesk staff and network administrators. Simply ask a question in natural language and get actionable insights. Marvis brings proactive anomaly detection into the SLE dashboard, so you’re alerted to deviations from established baselines. And with Marvis Actions, you’ll get proactive recommendations for WAN issues such as MTU mismatch, bad cables, and WAN link congestion and outages.

The Marvis Conversational Interface service allows IT teams to quickly get answers to questions like, “Why is my user’s video chat application experience bad?” The Mist™ platform Temporal Entity Relationship Framework correlates WAN, LAN, and WLAN network entities to provide you with the exact root cause(s) of a degraded application experience. Marvis Actions then provides recommendations to improve those experiences.

Window to the AI-Driven SD-WAN, Powered by Session Smart

In addition to providing AIOps for day-2 operations, WAN Assurance delivers life cycle management and operations. This includes day-0 and day-1 operations for the Juniper AI-Driven SD-WAN solution with Session Smart Routers, which fuel an advanced, service-centric networking solution. Session Smart technology delivers an experience-based SD-WAN with deep session visibility and insights, and fine-grained session control. Its tunnel-free approach enables agile, secure, resilient WAN connectivity with breakthrough economics and simplicity.

With WAN Assurance, IT teams can onboard, configure, and deploy Session Smart Routers and SD-WAN with operations such as:

Zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) and easy onboarding with Mist Claim Code
Easy templating for rapid scale deployments
Path and peering preferences
Service and application policies
Security policies
Network and NAT configuration

Session Smart Routers are available in several form factors, including software on x86 devices, a white box, or the Juniper^® NFX Series Network Services Platforms. Also, it’s available as a dedicated appliance with the SSR Series Session Smart Router.