Juniper Buys Startup 128 Technology For $450M To Boost AI Capabilities

“The acquisition of 128 Technology will enable Juniper to accelerate in a key area where we are seeing enormous success – the AI-driven enterprise,” said Juniper CEO Rami Rahim.

Juniper Networks is acquiring Boston-based networking software startup 128 Technology in a move to boost its enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) and edge capabilities.

“The acquisition of 128 Technology will enable Juniper to accelerate in a key area where we are seeing enormous success – the AI-driven enterprise,” said Juniper CEO Rami Rahim in a statement. “With 128 Technology, we are adding a highly differentiated technology into our award-winning arsenal of campus and branch solutions driven by Mist AI to deliver even more customer value while further accelerating Juniper’s continued growth in the enterprise.”

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper is expected to close the $450 million acquisition during its fiscal fourth quarter.

[Related: Juniper Networks: ‘We Made The Hard Pivot And Are Now Set For Great Growth’]

128 Technology, which made CRN’s 50 Hottest Software-Defined Data Center Vendors as well as CRN’s 10 Hottest Enterprise Networking Startups, owns a unique Session Smart networking technology that enables enterprises and service providers to create a user experience-centric fabric for WAN connectivity that’s simple, efficient, agile and secure. Juniper will combine the Session Smart technology with its own technology portfolio to create a modern AI-driven network that optimizes user experiences from the client to the cloud, Juniper said.

128 Technology will be integrated with Juniper’s AI-Driven Enterprise business unit, which includes SD-WAN, wired and wireless access, all driven by Juniper’s Mist AI.

Andy Ory, co-founder and CEO of 128 Technology, said his company has created a groundbreaking session-based routing solution that gives rise to experience-based networking.

“This allows our customers to realign their network with the requirements of a digital future that includes cloud, mobility and virtualization,” said Ory. “The combination of our Session Smart Router with Juniper’s AI-driven enterprise portfolio, expansive channel and world-class support will dramatically accelerate our vision to transform networking and make a big impact on a very large, yet still highly under-served, WAN-Edge market.”

By making intelligent decisions based on real-time user sessions and agile business policies instead of static network policies configured on a per tunnel basis, 128 Technology provides network performance and scale at a lower operational cost than traditional WAN router and SD-WAN solutions.

Looking ahead, Juniper plans to also integrate 128 Technology with Juniper’s WAN Assurance software, the branch SRX portfolio and Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which will enable customers to get even more advanced AI-driven WAN capabilities – from initial configuration to ongoing AIOps. Juniper said when 128 Technology is coupled with its Juniper Connected Security, customers will get zero-trust access, next generation firewall, web/content filtering, real-time threat intelligence and advanced threat protection.

On the security front, Juniper recently added Adaptive Threat Profiling for Juniper Advanced Threat Prevention Cloud, an integration with device profiling provider WootCloud, and a brand-new VPN application geared to remote use cases.

Juniper Networks stock slightly fell when the acquisition was announced on Monday from $22.57 per share to around $22 per share at market close.