Juniper Networks Inc. has been pursuing a number of artificial intelligence enhancements for its portfolio over the past year.

It’s part of the company’s firm belief that AI networking offers solutions that chief technology officers and chief information officers need in today’s enterprise.

“Typically, 70% to 80% of the effort that is exercised by their team at any given time is not going into innovation,” said Rami Rahim (pictured), chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. “It’s going into just keeping the lights on, just keeping the network running. We believe that job should be solved, should be accomplished by the robots … so we can free up the time of humans to actually work on digital transformation efforts. That is what AI is solving today.”

Rahim spoke with theCUBE Research analysts John Furrier and Dave Vellante, along with guest analyst Zeus Kerravala at MWC Barcelona, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Juniper Networks’ growing role in providing AI solutions for the telco industry. (* Disclosure below.)

Mist acquisition propels AI expansion for Juniper Networks

Juniper made its own big bet on AI in 2019 when it acquired Mist Systems Inc. in a $405 million deal. Mist offered a cloud-based platform that used AI for automating customer Wi-Fi infrastructure.

“There were a lot of skeptics about AI when we first started to offer Mist,” Rahim said. “Today we’re offering Mist across all aspects of networking, from wireless to wired to WAN to security. There are a lot of telcos here that are looking at the Mist success and asking how to take advantage of it.”

In addition to Mist, Juniper has also been engaged with telcos about networking for AI at the edge, an area that Rahim believes can be a white space opportunity in the industry.

“It’s still an opportunity for telcos to come in there and offer edge services potentially with AI inferencing as a new revenue stream generation approach in their businesses,” he said. “I view our role at Juniper Networks as an enabler, as somebody who can work and partner with our telco partners to show that this is in fact an approach that can drive new revenue streams for them.”

In October, Juniper unveiled additions to its hardware portfolio designed to improve security of Ethernet networks. There has been an ongoing debate over industry preference for Ethernet versus InfiniBand as the interconnection technology of choice, and Rahim made it clear in his interview where the market was headed.

“The technology of choice today is still InfiniBand … we expect that’s going to transition rapidly to Ethernet,” Rahim said. “It’s just a matter of time before Ethernet becomes a superior technology to InfiniBand from an economic standpoint, from a speed of innovation standpoint.”

In January, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. confirmed its plans to acquire Juniper for approximately $14 billion, a move that HPE’s chief executive highlighted as an opportunity to accelerate the deployment of AI throughout the network during an exclusive interview earlier today with theCUBE. Rahim viewed this in a similar light and characterized it as an important step for both companies to capitalize on the innovation being generated by AI adoption.

“The big inflection of our time is artificial intelligence,” Rahim said. “I believe that incremental moves toward capturing this market are not going to be sufficient. You need bold moves, and this is an example of a bold move. I think this is ultimately the opportunity that we can pursue better as one company.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of MWC Barcelona:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the MWC Barcelona event. No sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE