Through this solution, CMC will be able to deliver a dynamic and self-optimising network that will create an optimal experience to CMC’s customers, allowing them to easily modify their services, add new locations and turn up and down network speeds. In addition, time-to-market is greatly reduced, enabling CMC to provision services faster.

Using Juniper’s unique Session Smart Router technology driven by Mist AI, CMC creates a unique tunnelless solution designed for scale and agility, paired with automated provisioning, management and troubleshooting for maximum uptime, superior performance of real-time traffic and lower operating costs in both rural and urban environments.

“SD-WAN is not a new technology and every SD-WAN player gives customers speed and power on the network,” said Geoff Dornan, chief technology officer of CMC Networks.

“However, digital transformation strategies require a high level of intelligence, support and the ability to underpin business-critical applications – attributes that many SD-WAN vendors can’t provide. Juniper’s AI-driven SD-WAN gives CMC a level of intelligence and operational insight that we haven’t seen before.”

CMC chose the Session Smart Router and standardised on Juniper’s Service and Topology Exchange Protocol (STEP) in order to navigate network traffic with real-time data information.

The Juniper solution also includes Secure Vector Routing (SVR), an intelligent routing architecture that enables CMC’s network to differentiate the way it delivers applications and services to end users.

The Juniper Session Smart Router (SSR) enables agile, secure, and resilient WAN connectivity enabling each session is secured with zero trust access by default.

‘Juniper’s AI-driven SD-WAN solution, powered by our Session Smart Router and Mist AI, enables us to be laser-focused on optimising user experience,” said Sue Graham Johnston (pictured), vice president and general manager at Juniper Networks.

“We recognised early that networks must be application-aware to support the demands of the evolving enterprise and to deliver the highest levels of user experience,”

CMC has been rolling out Session Smart Routers in Africa for the last three years, with plans to broaden its footprint into additional regions.

Additionally, CMC is in the process of planning the rollout of additional cloud-hosted services driven by Mist AI, including WAN Assurance and the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant.