AI, Zero Trust, and cloud are sparking many thought-provoking conversations, but within Federal, these hot topics require precise implementations and more scrutiny than commercial deployments. In this new video, Jon Green, Chief Technology and Security Officer for HPE Aruba Networking, sat down with FedScoop to discuss how AI-powered, cloud-managed networking can help agencies meet Zero Trust and AI mandates.
Watch the video to learn more about the value of AI-powered, security-first network operations—whether managed from the cloud or on-premises—to improve users’ experiences, streamline network operations, and advance Zero Trust security.
The timing of the FedScoop conversation is especially relevant for Federal, which must meet mandated Zero Trust cybersecurity standards and objectives by September 2024 as well as address executive orders on AI.
Let’s start with AI since everyone is talking about it.
Artificial intelligence
In most cases, GenAI is catching people’s attention for its ability to synthesize new text and media content. You’ve experimented with ChatGPT, right? HPE Aruba Networking is a big proponent of GenAI and we recently added an GenAI search feature to HPE Networking Aruba Central, our cloud-managed networking solution, as another advance in AIOps. In addition to GenAI, we’re leveraging natural language processing (NLP), another type of AI, to help network managers resolve complex issues to lessen the impact on your network, save time with automation, and get early-warning troubleshooting tips.
Natural language processing (NLP)
When it comes to AIOps, NLP is a game changer. It enables troubleshooting questions in search queries to be more conversational and responses to be much more relevant. It saves time pouring through documentation and tapping away at the command line. We’ve trained our data models with our product documentation to enhance the accuracy and response of search and navigation.
For network administrators, this resource is an incredible time saver. They can ask questions like “Why is my network behaving this way?”, “What’s causing this problem for this user?” and“What would be the effect of changing this setting?”
Machine learning
Equally valuable is machine learning, another type of AI. ML leverages AI to identify trends and insights from large data sets and find patterns to make predictions. Cloud-managed networks are an ideal environment for ML.
Let’s say your organization uses Central to manage your wireless or wired networks. When you experience a performance issue, Central’s ML capabilities can look across a metadata set of other (anonymous) customers and recognize that your configuration is different than 99 percent of configurations. Central can let you know that the performance problem is related to the configuration and suggest you make a change to see if it brings your performance back in line. It’s a massive time-saver, and these precise recommendations are extremely difficult if you have isolated islands of network management. Cloud-managed networking is the foundation to unlock insights and automated actions.
Managed through the cloud or on-premises
We realize not every customer is going to move 100% to the cloud, so HPE Aruba Networking offers a private-cloud alternative that provides agencies with the advantages of AI insights. You can manage your wireless or wired domains from Central On Premises or through the cloud with Central. We will train the models using the massive data sets of our aggregate users and let customers gain access to those insights with portable software that can reside in a private cloud or on premises.
Zero Trust security
Zero Trust has many different facets, including the application, network, and device layers. If your agency uses SAP ERP, for example, you can put a Zero Trust wrapper around the application. In general, use application layer Zero Trust wherever you can. Zero Trust network access controls can provide another powerful layer of security that allows agencies to enforce security policies consistently. The same security policies can be applied whether a user or device accesses digital resources over a wired, wireless or WAN connection from an agency office, at home, or in the field. Device behavior is also continuously assessed and acted upon. For example, if a printer is compromised, it can be stopped from sending botnet traffic, port scanning the network, or other malicious activities.
As the deadlines approach for Zero Trust and AI mandates, you can trust that HPE Aruba Networking campus and branch networking, HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass for Zero Trust Security, and HPE Aruba Networking SASE are security-first and AI-powered to help your agency meet your mission efficiently and effectively.
