At Compnow, we’re always looking ahead, helping customers simplify, secure and scale their networks with modern, intelligent solutions. That’s why Juniper Networks has become one of our most strategic partners in the enterprise, government and commercial space.
Recently, Compnow’s Chief Revenue Officer Andrew Charles sat down with Bruce Bennie, Vice President & General Manager for Juniper Networks Australia & New Zealand, to explore the role of AI, the convergence of networking and security, and how Marvis is changing IT operations.
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With organisations facing increasing complexity in their infrastructure, consolidation is a top priority. As Bruce explained, “Our customers more and more are looking to consolidate and simplify, not just their vendors, but also all their management platforms and tools. And there are thousands of them out there.”
Juniper’s Mist AI platform brings those functions together. “All of these are now managed under the one platform… one pane of glass, right, for all the things you want to do across your network,” Bruce said.
Andrew added, “We took on Juniper because we think it’s one of the most amazing technologies in market today.”
At the heart of Juniper’s platform is Marvis, the virtual network assistant. “How is that being utilised in field to effectively reduce tickets, improve user experience and drive operational costs down?” Andrew asked.
Bruce responded: “What we’re seeing is what I got when I was using that capability… we talk about AIOps in terms of day-to-day operations, which is really where the cost comes out of it. How do I drive tickets down? How do I have a self-healing capability within the network?”
He continued, “In the past we had four or five people looking at it. You probably needed one. The overall cost in terms of managing that network is going to drop. The resources needed are going to drop as well. And the result is a better customer experience for everybody.”
Andrew reflected, “What’s remarkable is when you actually see Marvis for the first time and you start engaging with Marvis with natural language services—it really is shaping the future of where networking is heading.”
As networking and security operations converge, Juniper is enabling teams to work from a shared foundation. “Networking, security and CIOs, it’s being beneficial to both the parts of the business. Why have two platforms when I can have one to do both?” Bruce said.
He added, “From a cost perspective, a training perspective, and from an AIOps perspective… we’re getting a lot of customers actually using it as a baseline for those integrations.”
Andrew reinforced the value in today’s climate: “There’s never been a better time to look at Juniper’s AI landscape because of the operational savings that it can present at scale.”
Juniper’s approach is already paying off in measurable ways. “We’re seeing things like a faster deployment time, fewer trouble tickets that are being raised, I think there’s a 90% drop in trouble tickets—better customer experience,” said Bruce.
And adoption is accelerating. “We’ve got over 150 customers down the street in New Zealand, all of which basically are using Mist and have seen the value and the benefit.”
When asked what message Juniper has for Australian customers trying to modernise securely and effectively, Bruce said, “Everyone now has AI, right? And I think that’s the challenge in terms of the noise… what I typically tell our customers is test us, try us… sceptical prospects become our best advocates when they become a customer because they see what it does.”
Bruce closed with a clear statement of momentum: “We were talking about AI a long time before the markets… we’re not standing still. There’s a lot of activity in the marketplace around AI, but we are certainly continuing our development and doubling down on that.”
Compnow is proud to be one of Juniper’s fastest-growing partners in Australia. To learn more about how Juniper’s AI-driven platform can support your organisation, contact your Compnow Account Manager or email us at [email protected].
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