HPE: With Juniper and Aruba Against the Rest of the Networking World

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At this year's Discover event in Barcelona, HPE is presenting a series of innovations. The focus was on enhancements to its network offering, which are attributable to the recent acquisition of Juniper. The first integrations between Aruba Networking Central and Juniper Networking Mist were presented here (Mist is a Juniper product; the name means fog/cloud in English).

The Large Experience Model (LEM) and Marvis Actions from Mist were integrated with Aruba's AI-based client profiling and Organizational Insights using microservices. The fact that HPE was able to implement these integrations in five months is due to the underlying architectures, which are based on microservices and were both developed for the cloud. The further goal is a unified, AI-based platform for the entire management of enterprise networks.

AI for Network Administration

HPE divides AI network applications into two areas: AI for the network and networks for AI. AI for the network primarily concerns AIOps, i.e., the use of AI for general network management and maintenance. Together with the virtual network assistant (VNA) Marvis, Mist collects telemetry data from Juniper routers, switches, access points, firewalls, and applications. This is intended to provide actionable insights and automated workflows for detecting and resolving a variety of network problems.

HPE Aruba Networking is now adding the comprehensive GreenLake Intelligence. The next step on the agenda is AI agents. "With agent-based AI, there are no limits to management capabilities. We are moving towards autonomous functions where the network can practically do everything independently," said Rami Rahim, Executive Vice President and General Manager of HPE Networking and former CEO of Juniper, at a press conference.

Unlike traditional AIOps tools, agent-based AIOps can analyze network behavior and take independent action. According to Rahim, they are working on creating self-managing networks that continuously improve user experience without requiring manual intervention.

Routers and Switches for AI Data Centers

The second AI area concerns networks for AI. According to Rahim, modern AI data centers have completely different requirements than traditional data centers. They rely on massive, highly efficient Ethernet networks to transfer data between GPUs. HPE aims to meet this demand with two new hardware components. The first is the MX301, a compact multiservice edge router with 1.6 terabits per second, specifically designed for AI inference.

The second product, the QFX5250, is a switch based on the Broadcom Tomahawk 6 chip. It offers a bandwidth of over 100 Tbit/s and supports next-generation interfaces with 1.6 Tbit/s, designed for high-speed networks to connect GPU racks in AI data centers. According to Rahim, the QFX5250 is the "world's most powerful, fully liquid-cooled UET-capable switch."

Juniper as the Basis for Many Systems

But there is a third part: the embedding or connection of HPE network components into other systems. For example, the Juniper MX and PTX routing platforms have been integrated into Nvidia's reference architecture for AI factories, enabling fast and secure access to the new AI factories. The expansion also includes optical functions required for connecting data centers over long distances or for consolidating workloads from different clouds.

Furthermore, HPE presented an Ethernet-based scale-up switch for AMD's new Helios rack – an alternative in a segment that has so far relied on proprietary GPU connections like Nvidia's NVLink. Helios is AMD's new AI rack design within the Open Compute Project ORv3 and features modular bays and liquid cooling for high-density environments with limited power consumption.

The New Role of Networking at HPE

With its numerous network announcements, HPE made it clear that this area within the company has gained significantly more importance. While they had Aruba in their portfolio before, the company was operated as an independent entity. This has fundamentally changed with the Juniper acquisition. Shortly after the takeover, HPE CEO Antonio Neri pointed to the new HPE strategy: "We want to be number one in everything we do," he said at the time. This was primarily aimed at networking leader Cisco.

While many providers are active in this field, such as Arista, Extreme Networks, Huawei, and Fortinet, if you want to become number one, you have to measure yourself against Cisco. Therefore, HPE is obviously also working hard on a complete merger of all functions of the Juniper and Aruba platforms. The announcement of the first Wi-Fi 7 access point, which can run both HPE Aruba Networking Central and HPE Juniper Networking Mist, fits in with this.

(vbr)