HPE drops first Juniper x Aruba collab – self-driving Wi-Fi

HPE has delivered the first fruits of its Juniper acquisition: Wi-Fi access points that users can manage with either Aruba Central or the Mist platform, and self-driving" tools that use AI to allow some autonomous operations. The access points are the prosaically named HPE Networking 723H, a three-radio Wi-Fi 7 machine the company recommends for hospitality, branch, and teleworker deployments. The APs also represent HPE's first application of AI-powered autonomous networks. Mittal Parekh, HPE's marketing lead for campus and branch networking, told The Register one self-driving scenario HPE provides is scanning the local RF environment to detect any frequencies Wi-Fi should avoid because they're required or in use by military or other organizations that have priority. Self-driving means networks will automatically steer clear of those frequencies when it makes sense to do so. He also pointed to dynamic capacity optimization," which he said will see HPE Wi-Fi networks detect a gathering of users for events like an all-hands meeting, and adjust itself as necessary to ensure connections remain strong and steady. Detecting mismatched or missing VLANs, and rebuilding networks before traffic drops, is another self-driving capability. Parekh said those scenarios currently require IT teams to do manual work that might not be possible to complete before the meeting ends, or a military user vacates a frequency. HPE's tech will also detect and de-fang rogue DHCP servers before they become a problem. Parekh said HPE's tech allows humans to remain in the loop if they choose but hopes that NetAdmins begin to develop sufficient trust that they let networks take care of their own affairs and spend their time on higher-value tasks. The application that delivers self-driving capabilities runs in the cloud, and uses oodles of data HPE and Juniper collected over decades, plus the Marvis AI Juniper offered when it was an independent outfit. Jeff Aaron, marketing lead for HPE's networking business unit, pointed out that HPE has delivered a unified product within months of closing its Juniper acquisition, and snarked that Cisco took years to do likewise when merging its own-brand Wi-Fi with Meraki's. Competitive sniping aside, Aaron said the self-driving tech and Wi-Fi APs show how HPE plans to cross-pollinate its Aruba and Juniper portfolios, without forcing users of either brand to make a jump. HPE is not alone in pursuing agentic network operations, or merging networking brands: Cisco is combining its Catalyst and Meraki management tools, and is betting on AI to detect network issues and automate fixes. (R)