Letting AI do the heavy lifting in network management

Every year, our organisations generate more data from a wider range of sources. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), more than 50 per cent of data will be generated outside a data centre or cloud over the next two years. Much of this data is set to come from an estimated 55 billion internet of things (IoT) devices coming online around the world.  

Business leaders have realised there are advantages to tap into within all of this data. By deploying a host of new applications at the edge of their networks, they unlock real-time insights that drive new efficiencies and unlock new revenue streams. 

Meanwhile, we see network operators in the middle of this new maelstrom of data. While our ability to collect, analyse, and store data has progressed in leaps and bounds, network engineers are attempting to manage these complex environments with the same old tools and manual processes. 

In terms of daily priorities for network engineers, their end-users still need reliable and consistent connectivity from wifi. Yet a survey of network engineers from ZK Research reveals that: 

• Wifi problems account for 64 per cent of all network problems 
• Sixty per cent of networking professionals spend the equivalent of one day per week doing nothing but wifi troubleshooting. 

These network environments can only be as effective as the people who manage them. Yet even the most experienced operators are bound by the need to manually repair network issues while attempting to blindly diagnose the root cause of problems. 

So, how can we lighten the load put upon network operators while reducing the number of daily tickets? Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) applications now offer network teams a release valve for coping with some of their most pressing issues. These new capabilities, known as artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps), combine data and machine learning to automate processes such as event correlation, anomaly detection, and causality determination. 

Predicting the future of network operations 

Aruba’s Edge Services Platform (ESP) is the first AI-powered platform designed specifically to unify, automate, and secure the edge of networks. AIOps has now been integrated into Aruba Central, which offers a single pane of glass that enables network operators to manage unified infrastructure, software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN), and security. 

Aruba’s AI capabilities empower operators with a range of insights that allow them to:  

• Leverage automated anomaly detection and network optimisation
• Use natural-language search queries to find information  
• Automate tasks, like packet capture and opening trouble tickets 
• Accurately identify all devices, including internet of things (IoT) 
• Apply dynamic access control policies for. enforcement across the entire network. 

At Datacom, we partner with organisations across every industry to help network teams reduce the management burden of increasingly complex networks. Through our partnership with Aruba, we’re excited to be bringing the AIOps capabilities within Aruba ESP to help our clients work smarter not harder. Contact us today to discuss your opportunities for leveraging AI within your network operations.