Juniper Networks has acquired WiteSand, the provider of cloud-native zero trust network access control (NAC) solutions.

This deal brings a highly experienced engineering team and exceptional technology to Juniper, the company said. The acquisition accelerates Juniper’s ongoing efforts to deliver a next-generation NAC solution as a key piece of its AI-driven enterprise portfolio.

Disrupting the NAC Space

Sujai Hajela is EVP of AI-driven enterprise at Juniper Networks.

“Both WiteSand and Juniper share a common vision of disrupting the antiquated NAC space with cloud agility and AI-driven intelligence,” Hajela said. “Their premier NAC technology and renowned engineering team are the perfect complement to Juniper’s AI-driven enterprise portfolio.”

NAC plays a vital role in many IT environments by identifying which devices can securely connect to a network. However, building traditional NAC solutions means relying on monolithic code bases and on-premises hardware. These are complex to deploy and operate; plus, they can be cost prohibitive to scale. Moving NAC operations to the cloud solve these limitations. This can leverage AIOps for automated provisioning, monitoring, analysis and security.

“When NAC is integrated with wireless assurance, wired assurance, WAN assurance, IoT assurance and indoor location services under a common Mist cloud and AI umbrella, Juniper customers can deliver amazing experiences to their network users, from the client all the way to the cloud,” Hajela said

Experience-First Networking Solutions

ZK Research’s Zeus Kerravala

Zeus Kerravala is founder and principal analyst at ZK Research. Since acquiring Mist, Juniper innovates and differentiates itself in the market, he said. The company has accomplished this by delivering experience-first networking solutions for its customers.

“As industry research shows, more and more global customers are choosing Juniper as their strategic IT infrastructure partner,” Kerravala said. “It is great to see Juniper taking strategic steps with network access control. I look forward to seeing them continue to execute on their unique and compelling vision of a unified solution for the AI-driven enterprise.”