Juniper offers AI pricing incentives, education programs

Juniper Networks is offering education programs and pricing incentives to accelerate enterprise adoption of AI-based technologies. The vendor rolled out its Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration, which offers a variety of options that enterprise customers can use to streamline adoption, boost skills, and gain exposure to the potential commercial, technical and operational hurdles of AI.

The potential of AI, especially for economic growth, productivity enhancements, and job creation, is unlimited, said Manoj Leelanivas, Juniper executive vice president and chief product officer, in a blog about the new platform. “However, this promise comes with many challenges, including skills gaps, implementation complexities, a lack of trusted and comprehensive solutions, and significant adoption costs that many businesses struggle to navigate,” Leelanivas wrote.

The idea with the Blueprint is to give customers a guide and toolkit for success with Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform. “We’ve taken this approach to ensure a swift, efficient, and streamlined path to realizing AI’s benefits without most (if not all) of the speed bumps, complications, or complexities,” Leelanivas stated.

Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform is aimed at unifying its campus, branch and data center networking products under a common AI engine. Central to the platform are the firm’s cloud-based, natural language Mist AI and Marvis virtual network assistant (VNA) technology. Juniper’s Mist AI engine analyzes data from networked access points and devices so it can detect anomalies and offer actionable resolutions.

Specifically, the blueprint will offer an “AI in Networking for Business Leaders” course that investigates how AIOps is used to optimize network operations. Topics of the course include AI networking fundamentals, how AIOps can aid in network management, and the benefits of using a VNA with natural language processing, according to Leelanivas. Other AI classes teach skills that can lead to certifications to accelerate AI career and business opportunities.

Streamlined licensing is another component of the Blueprint. “To get the most from your AI investment, we’re offering a variety of free trials, special offers, and promotional bundles across our AI-Native Networking Platform,” Leelanivas stated. “These initiatives provide effective and cost-efficient opportunities for businesses to explore and embrace our AI technology.”

Juniper’s programs offer access to a number of incentives, including: a free access point and 90-day trial of Juniper’s wireless assurance software; access to the Ops4AI Lab, hosted by Juniper, to validate performance and functionality of their AI models and workloads; free service credits that can be applied to migration services and training; and a free three-year trial of the Juniper Paragon Automation platform.

“Disparate licenses, varied terms, and unpredictable costs can hinder operational efficiency and become a significant burden,” wrote Mathias Kokot, vice president of cloud-ready data center at Juniper, in a blog about licensing. “To address these challenges, we’ve developed Enterprise Agreements (EA) that simplify the purchase, consumption, and management of software licenses and SaaS under a single, straightforward contract.” 

Customers can see discounts on essential services such as Juniper Care and Juniper Mist AI Accelerate, while consolidated procurement for multiple products and use cases simplifies the ordering process, Kokot stated. 

Juniper Validated Designs (JVD) are also part of the program. JVDs offer customers best-practice data center designs, prescriptive blueprints, and risk mitigation features – such as guides for products, features, and tools key to creating repeatable data center fabric designs – that provide the foundation required to power reliable and qualified deployments, according to Juniper. 

The Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration is just the latest in a variety of AI-related upgrades from Juniper in recent months. Other product and company developments include:

• New features in Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform, dubbed Operations for AI (Ops4AI). The additions enable congestion control, load-balancing and management capabilities for systems controlled by the vendor’s core Junos and Juniper Apstra data center intent-based networking software.
• Marvis Minis for wireless deployments, announced in May. These work by setting up a digital twin of a customer’s network environment to simulate and test user connections, validate network configurations, and find/detect problems without requiring any additional hardware.
• Clearing an acquisition hurdle: Juniper’s pending acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise received unconditional approval from the European Commission this month. The deal is still on track to close in early 2025.