As enterprise networks become more complex and business-critical, HPE Networking is advancing its vision of AI-driven operations that can detect, diagnose and resolve issues with increasingly less manual intervention. Jacob Chacko, Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa at HPE Networking, discusses what the self-driving network means for CIOs, how it differs from traditional automation and the opportunities created by the integration of HPE Aruba Networking and HPE Juniper Networking.
HPE has been talking increasingly about the self-driving network. What exactly does that mean, and how fundamentally different is it from the AI-assisted network management enterprises already use?
The key difference is the ability to move from insight to action. AI-assisted networking provides recommendations and insights, but human operators still make decisions and carry out the necessary actions. A self-driving network takes this further by detecting issues, determining their root cause, and taking corrective action automatically.
This does not mean removing people from the process. Human oversight remains essential for policy, governance, and business decisions. The objective is to automate routine operational activities while ensuring that network behaviour remains aligned with organisational requirements and the decisions that matter most to the business.
HPE says networks can now detect, diagnose and resolve certain problems autonomously. How close are we to networks that genuinely require minimal human intervention?
We are already seeing meaningful progress. Many common network issues can be detected and resolved automatically, while tasks such as anomaly detection, root cause analysis and configuration validation are becoming increasingly automated.
However, complex design decisions, security policies and major change management still require human expertise. The industry is moving towards networks that require less manual intervention, rather than a fully autonomous environment overnight.
The immediate opportunity is to reduce the operational burden on network teams by automating repetitive tasks and enabling faster responses to common issues. This allows skilled professionals to focus on more complex challenges and strategic priorities.
Why is this a game changer for CIOs and network teams, rather than simply the next stage of network automation?
Traditional automation follows predefined rules and workflows. AI-driven networks can go further by adapting to changing conditions and learning from operational data. This enables a more dynamic approach to managing network performance and resolving issues.
For CIOs, the value lies in faster problem resolution, reduced downtime and lower operational effort. Network teams can spend less time troubleshooting and more time supporting business priorities, whether that involves improving user experiences, enabling new applications or supporting digital transformation.
As networks become increasingly important to cloud, AI and distributed operations, the ability to maintain performance and resilience with less manual intervention becomes a significant advantage.
The integration of HPE Aruba Networking and HPE Juniper Networking has significantly expanded HPE’s networking portfolio. What can customers do today that they could not do before the combination?
The combination gives customers greater choice and flexibility within a single vendor portfolio. They can select the best-fit platform for different networking requirements while accessing AI-driven operations capabilities across a broader range of campus, branch, data centre and WAN environments.
Customers can also leverage the complementary strengths of HPE Aruba Networking and HPE Juniper Networking technologies. This creates opportunities to simplify procurement, support and lifecycle management through a broader integrated portfolio.
Ultimately, the combination provides organisations with more flexibility in how they modernise and operate their networks, allowing them to address different requirements while working towards a more consistent operational approach.
How are HPE Mist, HPE Marvis and HPE Aruba Central coming together as part of HPE’s broader self-driving networking strategy? HPE recently expanded shared agentic capabilities across these platforms.
HPE is bringing AI capabilities and operational intelligence across both platforms, with shared agentic AI capabilities designed to provide a more consistent experience across networking domains.
HPE Marvis delivers conversational and proactive operational intelligence, helping network teams understand and address issues more efficiently. HPE Mist and HPE Aruba Central provide cloud-based management and operational control at scale, while HPE Aruba Central CoP can deliver the same capabilities on-premises.
The long-term direction is a more unified AI-driven operational model across the HPE Networking portfolio. By bringing together the complementary strengths of these platforms, we aim to help customers simplify operations, improve visibility and move progressively towards more autonomous network management.
