Based in Sunnyvale, California, Juniper Networks, a networking and cyber solutions multinational, broke the news of purchasing 128 Technology for a whopping USD 450 million.
In the last year and a half, this deal marks the second AI-driven acquisition by Juniper Networks, the first one being Mist Systems acquired in March 2019 for about USD 405 million. With 128 Technology, the company adds more AI SD-WAN technology to its kitty.
SD-WAN (software-defined wide-area networks) translates to a technology that covers a wide geographical area such as satellite offices and not just a defined space.
In the digital era, in place of merely deploying software-defined networking, newer systems leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help automate session and policy details as per demand rather than dealing with static policies that might not be a perfect fit for every situation.
In a company blog post, Juniper Network’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Manoj Leelanivas expressed that he envisions 128 Technology to add exceptional flexibility to the portfolio. This is because it is trying to transition from legacy networking approaches to modern ones powered by AI, especially in union with the Mist purchase.
Manoj Leelanivas also mentioned, “Combining 128 Technology’s groundbreaking software with Juniper SD-WAN, WAN Assurance and Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (driven by Mist AI) gives customers the clearest and quickest path to full AI-driven WAN operations — from initial configuration to ongoing AIOps, including customizable service levels (down to the individual user), simple policy enforcement, proactive anomaly detection, fault isolation with recommended corrective actions, self-driving network operations and AI-driven support.”
About 128 Technologies
Founded in 2014, 128 Technologies raised more than USD 96 million as per Crunchbase data. Its most recent funding round raised USD30 million in a Series D investment in September 2019, and The Perkins Fund and G20 Ventures led the event.