Cisco Systems Inc. is expanding its intent-based networking initiative to wide-area networks, which are those spread over a large geographical area.

The networking giant today launched two new software-defined WAN products based on its Meraki and Viptela technologies that are meant to analyze and predict application performance across these kinds of networks.

The company said the new products will use a combination of historical data to help predict application performance across wide area networks, and also real-time data to help mitigate any issues that come up.

This is all a part of Cisco’s intent-based networking initiative announced last year that aims to automate the entire network, from data centers to the edge. The idea is that with intent-based networking, users simply express their desired goals or outcomes and the network configures itself in the most optimal way.

Cisco has already delivered with automation products for other parts of the network, but said that WAN remains information technology departments’ biggest “blind spot,” especially in cases where traffic shifts to the cloud over networks not controlled by IT teams.

“We have set an ambitious goal for ourselves of transforming the entire network, from campus to branch, data center to edge,” said Scott Harrell, senior vice president and general manager for enterprise networking at Cisco. “The WAN is a vital part of the network and is one of the toughest to manage.”

Tough but not impossible, or so it would seem. In any case, Cisco seems to think it has cracked the problem with its new SD-WAN vAnalytics product, which is a software-as-a-service offering based on the Viptela technologies it acquired last summer.

SD-WAN vAnalytics works by providing historical network data that IT teams can use to plan for the amount of bandwidth they need. It also helps forecast the impact that certain policy changes or specific applications may have on wide-area networks. It goes further too, by providing recommendations and corrective actions to be taken to improve application performance.

Cisco’s second product provides further insights at the circuit and application levels. It’s called Meraki Insight, and it integrates into the existing Meraki dashboard to provide real-time visibility into application and WAN performance.

Cisco said businesses that use Meraki Insight will be able to do a better job of identifying and troubleshooting external and internal issues that can cause applications to perform badly in remote data centers of the cloud.

Customers will need a Cisco Meraki MX security appliance to take advantage of the new product, which will be made available in the third quarter of this year, the company said. Cisco said customers can use SD-WAN vAnalytics and Meraki Insight separately or together.

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