Juniper Networks holds Riyadh summit on automation, security of digital networks

Juniper Networks successfully completed its Riyadh Summit on 25 November at the Voco Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Close to 150 IT decision makers and industry executives attended the event. The half day event focused on simplifying networking through software defined applications, automating networking and security decision making, and the integration of artificial intelligence tools. BTC Networks, Nutanix and GEC Media Group were the event partners and the organising partners, respectively.

According to Juniper Networks’, complexity is at the heart of the most difficult networking problems. To simplify this, end customers must always starts with reengineering their networks. Network is the point where technology and people meet, and where results can be amazing.

Technical presentations were made on Enterprise Multi-cloud, AI for IT, and Connected Security. These discussions were led by Haitham Saif, System Engineering Manager META, Juniper Networks; Refat Al Karmi, Consulting Engineer MIST, Juniper Networks; and Mohammed Alwaheidi, Senior System Engineer Saudi Arabia, Juniper Networks.

The presentation made by Refat Al Karmi, on the functioning of Mist was well received, including the usage of machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate network and security responses. Haitham Saif stressed on the need to scale networks on the fundamentals of simplicity built by software defined applications and automation. As the scale and complexity of digital enterprises continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly difficult for human beings to manage such complex and sprawling networks in terms of optimisation and security.

Mist is an innovative enterprise wired and wireless solution. Traditional enterprise wired and wireless solutions are now over fifteen years old, leveraging monolithic code bases that are expensive to scale, prone to bugs, and difficult to manage. They are not equipped for the scale and complexity of today’s digital users, and do not provide the reliability needed for mission-critical wired and wireless operations. Mist looks at changing all of this.

With a modern microservices cloud architecture, Mist delivers scale and agility, and offers subscription services: Wi-Fi Assurance, Wired Assurance, AI-Driven Virtual Assistant, User Engagement, and Asset Visibility. Mist has an inline AI engine for insight and automation. While the enterprise-grade Access Points combine Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT for wireless experiences in a cost effective manner, Juniper EX Switches also deliver new mission critical experiences.

Artificial Intelligence brings much needed automation and insights to IT. While other vendors are trying to bolt AI on top of legacy platforms, Mist built an AI engine into the Mist platform that eliminates the need for overlay sensors, data collector hardware, and extra software. Mist looked at how big data and AI companies correlate massive data with performance and scale, and harnessed the same principles in the Mist Cloud.

The Mist Cloud is built using microservices, which allows services to act independently of one another. This optimises engineering efficiencies, ensures rapid feature roll-out, provides elastic scale, and makes the Mist platform inherently resilient.

The event also included a panel discussion on the subject of Digital Transformation towards Saudi Vision 2030. The panelist included Haitham Saif from Juniper Networks; Abdulrahman Almutairi, Ministry of Education; Abdulaziz AlOraij, FOSS Director, MCIT; Mohammed Mahnashi, ICT Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The panel discussion was moderated by GEC Media Group’s Editor, Arun Shankar.

The event concluded with a networking lunch.


The Juniper Networks Riyadh Summit was held on 25 November at the Voco Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


BTC Networks, Nutanix and GEC Media Group were the event partners and the organising partners, respectively.


The welcome address was given by Ronak Samantaray, CEO GEC Media Group. The Juniper Networks Riyadh Summit saw close to 150 IT decision makers and industry executives, attend the half-day event.


Haitham Saif stressed on the need to scale networks on the fundamentals of simplicity built by software defined applications and automation.


 

The presentation made by Refat Al Karmi, on the functioning of Mist was well received, including the usage of machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate network and security responses.


Presentation by Omar Alsahan, Service Business Manager on Service Provider Enterprise META at Juniper Networks.


The event also included a panel discussion on the subject of Digital Transformation towards Saudi Vision 2030.


The event highlighted increasing usage of AI to automate network and security responses and this was reflected in the discussion with vendor and partner executives during the break.