Nile takes on rivals with automated AI networking

Cloud-native networking vendor Nile today introduced a new architecture for its Nile Access Service with the aim to impact Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Aruba and other legacy networking vendors in the same way Amazon Web Services (AWS) impacted traditional data center server and storage vendors during its rise to infamy.

“We’re confident we have the right team and the right architecture in place to achieve that goal,” Nile CEO and former Cisco Chief Development Officer Pankaj Patel told SDxCentral.

Legacy networking vendors that aren’t helping customers build artificial intelligence (AI) on a cloud-native architecture are doomed for failure. It’s like attempting to turn a 1990s sedan into a modern electric autonomous vehicle. “The incumbents are trying to build a Tesla on top of a 30-year-old car,” Patel said.

While incumbent vendors are attempting to adapt through acquisitions and managed services, “their problem is that no matter how you spin it, they are beholden to a product-centric business model, whereas we are designed to deliver AI networking built into our service,” he said.

To that point, he expects “without a doubt” that similar services from other networking vendors will network point of presence (POP) up. The more relevant question is if those vendors “will actually be able to match our capabilities,” he said.

Delivering enhanced automation

While the core of Nile’s architecture is identical to the high-performance wired and wireless LAN as-a-service, or network-as-a-service (NaaS), to which the University of Denver recently switched, the company today introduced new AI networking and automation features that enhance its architecture and take it “beyond the current definition of what AIOps was meant to deliver,” Patel said.

Nile Access Service now includes five AI-driven applications powered by an integrated data model in the Nile Services Cloud. IT teams can use the design pipeline, digital twin, defense hub, smart agents and cognitive decisions applications to automate and simulate network operations, build edge-to-cloud zero-trust security into service blocks, collect real-time data and implement closed-loop automation to maintain an optimal network state.

“Each plays an important role in allowing us to offer customers better outcomes starting from a site survey with the automated creation of a bill of materials to software upgrades and even performance and availability guarantees,” he said.

Nile’s closed-loop automation is a substantial part of what makes the service unique, according to Patel. “We go beyond AI-generated insights and completely automate the traditionally manual lifecycle of enterprise networks.”

Nile Access Service now includes a level of automation that can identify and fix issues without human intervention. “Let’s say a physical cable connection in a given switch has become a bit loose. It’s not failing yet, but it’s loose. Our system will identify that, automatically take action to reroute connections around that port in order to maintain performance, and then generate a ticket that’s sent to Nile to resolve the issue,” Patel said. “All of these fixes are done without the customer even being aware they’re being completed.”

And with the digital twin and cognitive decisions applications, the network maintains its best state by identifying and remediating deviations from the network’s baseline performance. “It automatically tackles trouble tickets without a person having to do the actual work,” Patel said. “No one else is delivering this level of automation.”

Nile is also launching two AI apps within Nile Access Service. Nile CoPilot gives IT teams and end users tools to monitor service outcomes and onboard users and IoT devices. Nile Autopilot helps offload network operation requirements to the vendor’s AI engine for internal teams and its customers’ IT teams.

NaaS vs. AI networking

While this move represents a shift in terminology away from NaaS to AI networking, those terms are “just ingredients in what we view as the next-generation enterprise network — one that meets IT’s requirements in the era of cloud-native computing,” Patel said.

CIOs need their networks — and all facets of their IT infrastructure — to be fully automated, secure and delivered as a service for the best results. “Once you accept that definition, things like AI networking, zero-trust security and NaaS become more of a means to an end — necessary elements required to achieve our goals,” he said.

Source: www.sdxcentral.com