AppViewX Leaders Discuss the Power of Automation, AI

AppViewX has a new leader. The company late last month welcomed Ryan Windham as CEO.

“We are excited to have Ryan join us at this pivotal point in our journey to become the automation platform that enables digital transformation for the Enterprise,” said Anand Purusothaman, former CEO and now chairman of the board. “He brings proven industry experience and will align the company to capitalize on the current dynamics in the marketplace.”

Windham was previously CEO at Cedexis, which Citrix (News - Alert) Systems bought in February. Before that, Windham worked for F5 Networks as vice president of product management, and he spent a decade at Websense.

“AppViewX is an innovative company with a track record of solving big customer problems,” said Windham. “The company achieved triple-digit growth in subscription revenue over the past year, and I look forward to building on this momentum.”

The company provides solutions for the management, orchestration, and automation of private and public networks. Network and security operations leaders at enterprises, as well as large telcos, use AppViewX solutions.

ResearchAndMarkets.com expects the global network automation market to reach $18.6 billion by 2023, representing a 42 percent compound annual growth rate.

“Network automation is a process in which software automatically configures provisions, manages and tests network devices,” ResearchAndMarkets.com wrote. “The technology is widely used in enterprise eco systems to improve operational efficiency and limit human errors and as a result control operating expenses. Network automation tools are used right from basic network mapping and device discovery, to more complex workflows such as network configuration management and provisioning of virtual network resources.

“The critical need for network bandwidth management and network visibility, and rapid adoption of smart connected devices across all industry verticals are some of the major factors that would drive the market growth during the forecast period,” the research firm added.

In an interview with me last month, Windham explained that AppViewX also offers a digital certificate management and automation solution, which has seen a lot of traction. There’s a growing reliance on encryption in light of the cloud and more distributed network resources, he said. That means large numbers of certificates need to be issued and revoked. Many companies manage these processes with spreadsheets, he said, but doing it that way doesn’t scale.

As for artificial intelligence, Windham said operational teams still have some hesitation about handling over decision making to AI algorithms. But that will need to happen, at least to some extent, in order to scale. If network operations can create the right intent-based policy to enable it, a good share of network operations are likely to be fully automated in about three years, he said. And AppViewX’s platform provides a drag-and-drop user interface so network operations people can more easily build such workflows.

Late last year, AppViewX’s CTO Murali Palanisamy commented: “Artificial Intelligence was the talk of 2017, with predictions and ideas thrown loftily around by tech pioneers. In 2018 we will see the actual implementation of all these revolutionary ideas. It is no longer just a vision we’re aspiring to – it is happening. In fact, major global organizations are already investing millions of dollars in AI. 

“One major reason for the booming growth of AI is the elimination of manual dependencies and the errors they inevitably spur,” he added. “In enterprise tech, automation is already playing a major role in removing the need for manual intervention and therefore increasing business agility. However, when coupled with AI, users will introduce the essence of human intelligence that will effectively eliminate step-by-step programming and customization. To stay ahead of the curve, AI integration is a must as its presence becomes more and more tangible every day.” 

Palanisamy also talked about how intent-based automation is on the rise.

“Enterprises want to be in complete control, and engineers want to have the ability to customize workflows and processes to best suit their needs,” Palanisamy said. “Intent-based automation takes software-defined automation to the next level. Automation gives enterprises the flexibility to customize and predefine internal network workflows. Once users define the pathway, intent-based automation will manipulate the network to enforce policies and deliver the desired outcome. Intent-based automation eliminates the need for manual scaling by automating the process with pre-defined intent. Although it is still in its early stages, it has the potential to play an integral role in software-defined implementations by making automation smarter and more intuitive.”

Individuals and organizations that want to learn more about this topic are invited to attend and participate in Adaptive & Intent-Based Networking, an event that will take place Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TMC (News - Alert) is accepting session and speaker suggestions for the Adaptive & Intent-Based Networking event through July 31. To submit your ideas, please visit this link.