Extreme Networks is working on expanding its AI capabilities with new technology for its overarching cloud network management system to help customers quickly obtain detailed responses to queries about network anomalies, configurations and documentation to help them proactively troubleshoot and address network issues.
At the vendor’s Extreme Connect customer enclave this week it demonstrated Extreme AI Expert which it described as a Generative AI-based offering that will let customers ask natural language questions about network issues such as “show me all network anomalies” and it will generate specific charts and other details about the customer’s network, what anomalies might be causing problems, and what the customer can do about addressing them, Nabil Bukhari, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Extreme Networks told the audience.
“We have 700,000 pages of documentation on our Web site so no matter how amazing your search capabilities are – it’s typically going to take you a little time to
sift through that data to get answers,” Bukhari said. “We are simplifying that by task by offering a system where you can ask a question and the system will come back with a tailored response.”
For example, a customer might have forgotten how to configure a secure Wi Fi network or you have a new team member that quickly you want to onboard and ramp up, Bukhari said.
“So instead of searching thousands of pages, you just ask the system so how do I configure secure Wi-Fi network? The system will tailor a response unique to your question. And not only that, it is also important that we not only really validate the response, but we also expose you to the information that we use to generate that response. That information is always up to date. So we make sure that we have the latest documentation integrated and it gives you a reference that you can just follow up and make sure that trust is important that you know where we generated,” Bukhari said.
The AI Expert gathers data from a combination of Extreme’s public repository, knowledge base and Global Technical Assistance Center (GTAC) documentation as well as customer network details.
Pulling and combining data from applications and devices across the network to establish intelligence on performance and experience, Extreme stated.
“Extreme AI Expert will curate enterprise data to provide insights, automate operations and create alerts when it detects anomalies like network overload, degradation or Wi-Fi dead spots, among others,” Extreme stated.
Ultimately the system recommend preventative actions, offer suggestions and suggest network optimization based on business KPIs. Extreme AI Expert creates suggestions to troubleshoot, resolve or proactively address issues, Extreme stated.
AI Expertis currently a tech preview and Extreme expects to start integrating the technology — likely in its ExtremeCloud IQ wireless and wired network-management offering as well as its CoPilot AI-based management tool.
Extreme joins a number of vendors, including Cisco, Fortinet and HPE Aruba that have recently unveiled AI-based assistants designed to help enterprise customers better assess security situations, eliminate errors and automate complex tasks.
Cisco, for example, added an AI Assistant for Security that will be implemented as part of the vendor’s cloud-based Firewall Management Center and Cisco Defense Orchestrator services. Cisco’s Firewall Management Center is a centralized platform for configuring, monitoring, troubleshooting and controlling Cisco Firepower Next-Generation Firewalls. The orchestrator platform lets customers centrally manage, control and automate security policies across multiple cloud-native security systems.
Fortinet has is building an AI-based assistant to help customers fight off cybersecurity threats.
Fortinet Advisor is aimed at helping security operations teams make more informed decisions, respond to threats faster, and simplify routine and complex tasks. The AI-based assistant will be available as part of Fortinet’s FortiSIEM security information and event management platform and FortiSOAR security orchestration, automation, and response product.
In addition to the other vendors, HPE Aruba is deploying genAI-driven search tools in its management platform to help customers access detailed responses to queries about network configurations, documentation, and other IT operational issues.
The company is incorporating multiple HPE-trained large language models (LLM) into the search tools that are part of HPE Aruba Networking Central, its core cloud-based management and orchestration platform for wired and wireless networks spanning campus, branch and data center sites.