As networks continue to grow in complexity and become more prone to damaging attacks, overstretched IT teams need more time, effort, and expertise than ever before to keep them up-and-running and meet user needs. It is becoming increasingly challenging to prevent service degradation, remediate attacks, and deliver consistent, high-quality digital experiences to a hybrid workforce. That’s especially true as organizations face a shortage of skilled networking talent.
To simplify and streamline network operations and reduce the burden on IT teams, many decision makers are considering network operations solutions that are AI-enabled. These solutions can help IT teams make better decisions faster, reduce costs, and optimize network resources.
In fact, there’s a growing sense of urgency among business leaders to accelerate the deployment of AI across their operations. In a recent global Cisco survey of more than 8,000 business leaders, 61% said they believe they have one year at most to deploy their AI strategy before they’ll begin to feel negative impacts on the business, such as reduced operational efficiency and the inabilities to meet customer expectations and attract top talent.
When applied to complex network operations and security, AI provides many advantages, including helping IT staff make quick, informed decisions and automating many labor-intensive and error-prone configuration and management activities. The adoption of AI technologies provides a set of significant operational improvements in several key areas.
Empower IT teams
AI has a vital role to play in reducing the operational burden on IT teams by empowering them to manage network complexity with much less effort. AI-enabled tools are designed to optimize the network through automation and do much of the heavy lifting to ensure that everything is running smoothly and efficiently.
An AI-enabled network operations solution can automatically collect and correlate data in the network from end to end with no human intervention. This data can be used to derive insights through analytics that help: detect anomalies such as configuration errors; provide guidance to IT staff for remediation; and predict and resolve potential performance issues before they affect users. In addition, AI frees up highly skilled IT staff to focus their attention on other high-priority activities. Research has demonstrated that the adoption of AI tools resulted in IT staff spending twice as much time focused on innovation.
Strengthen end-to-end assurance
End-to-end assurance—the holistic management of network performance, reliability, and security—is another key area where the application of AI technology can make life simpler for IT teams. Whether they’re in the office or working remotely, users expect reliable, fast, consistent, and protected experiences. Providing these experiences means IT teams need enhanced visibility across the entire network. AI-enabled tools give IT staff real-time visibility into network connectivity from end to end. They also provide a common network management language for assuring continuity and optimizing the quality of the digital experience for workers, no matter where they’re located.
Unlock network value
AI can also help businesses scale their network performance and operations in a variety of different ways. AI tools can streamline real-time monitoring, management, and threat detection. They can also automate network configuration and workflow orchestration as new applications and use cases come online. These include precise forecasting of demand growth, simplified compliance, pervasive real-time video communications, and augmented reality. Overall, the application of AI tools can expand the range of possibilities the network can support.
Improve threat detection
Highly sophisticated and destructive cyber threats are on the rise. Nearly two-thirds of the 4,700 security professionals recently surveyed by Cisco reported suffering major security incidents that jeopardized business operations.
AI-enabled security solutions can be a powerful defense in the fight against cyberattacks. These solutions enable security teams to continuously monitor network traffic so that any anomalies, intrusions, or vulnerabilities can be detected and neutralized before they can damage the network.
Find the path for your AI network transformation
The acceleration of AI technologies is creating new growth drivers for organizations in every industry and improving productivity and business efficiency. The application of these technologies in the network can dramatically simplify operations and provide users with great digital experiences, while also giving organizations a significant edge over the competition.
Cisco is uniquely positioned to help customers leverage AI-enabled networks to simplify operations and enhance security. The company brings a depth and breadth of IT expertise gained from managing more than 50 million network devices annually, and can empower IT teams to do more in less time while delivering consistent and protected network experiences.
Start now and explore how Cisco networking platforms and solutions can help you implement AI-enabled network operations in your organization.
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