Mist Systems announced new products and
services that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to bring simplicity,
flexibility and scale to IT operations and support. These additions, which include
new 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) Access Points (APs), the new Mist Edge and the
industry's first AI-driven support model for IT, advance the company's goal of
building AI-driven enterprises that leverage automation and insight to lower IT
costs, maximize end-user experiences and ensure network infrastructure as a key
enabler for strategic business initiatives.
The Mist platform is a cornerstone of
Juniper's strategy for delivering the AI-driven enterprise. By leveraging
several core architectural advantages, including a microservices cloud
architecture with abstracted control, automated workflows, an integrated AI
engine and a robust product portfolio that spans the wireless LAN, wired LAN,
WAN and security domains, Juniper is bringing simplicity and scale to IT while
delivering the best possible end-user experiences. The company is expanding on
these pillars to bring even more value to the AI-driven enterprise with the
following new Mist products and services:
AI for AX
The company is expanding its family of APs
with the new Mist AP43, the first cloud-managed 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) access point
with integrated AI-driven automation and insight.
The 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard introduces
several new innovations to wireless networking that expand the throughput, performance
and capacity of traditional WLANs. However, expanding networks can also create
new complexity. The Mist AP43 (coupled with the Mist AI-driven cloud)
simplifies 802.11ax operations through automation and maximizes the value of
these environments with proactive resources and client management.
Unique Mist "AI for AX" features include:
-
Intelligent load balancing between radios/bands
-
Service levels that monitor and enforce orthogonal frequency-division multiple
access (OFDMA) subcarrier assignments
-
Basic Service Set (BSS) coloring assignments for high-density Wi-Fi
environments
-
Sticky client prevention using AI-driven algorithms
"Since inception, the Mist family of access
points has stood out in the industry for its unique ability to merge Wi-Fi,
virtual BluetoothTM LE (vBLE) and the Internet of Things (IoT) into a
cost-effective and scalable platform that is managed via the Mist cloud," said
Sudheer Matta, Vice President of Products at Mist. "In addition, Mist has led
the industry in the usage of AI to deliver mobile user experiences. As the
industry transitions to 802.11ax, these same architectural advantages will
continue to differentiate Mist from the competition and drive enhanced value to
our customers."
Pricing for the AP43 lists at $1585. For more
information, download the AP43 data sheet.
Mist Edge: Extending Microservices to the
Campus
Mist Edge extends Juniper's microservices
architecture on-premises, bringing the agility of a distributed software
architecture to campus environments that require network functions to be
delivered locally for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications.
Sample use cases for Mist Edge include:
- Split tunneling for guest
access and corporate traffic
- Seamless roaming for large
campus networks through on-premises tunnel termination of traffic to/from
access points
- Extending virtual LANs
(VLANs) to distributed branches and telecommuters to replace remote virtual
private network (VPN) technology
- Dynamic traffic
segmentation for IoT devices
"Connecting APs directly to the cloud is perfect
for our retail stores, but we needed a hybrid approach for our corporate
campus," said the network manager of a global telecommunications provider.
"Mist Edge is the perfect solution as it allows us to take advantage of the
software agility of a microservices architecture without disrupting our
existing network design, delivering the best of both worlds."
Mist Edge is currently available as a
standalone appliance with multiple form factors, supporting various ranges of
APs, respectively. Virtual machine and third-party hosted instances of Mist
Edge will be available soon.