At its Discover event in Las Vegas, HPE unveiled a massive package of networking hardware and software aimed at helping enterprises build and manage large-scale AI infrastructures from the data center to the edge. The announcements include new switches, tighter integration between Juniper networking and the Mist AI platform, a unified SASE orchestrator, and expanded partnerships with Nvidia.

New QFX Switch for AI Networks

HPE introduced the Juniper Networking QFX5140 switch, a 1RU, 16T fixed-configuration data center switch designed for AI fabric, spine, leaf, and border leaf deployments. It features 24x 400G QSFP112 ports, 8x 800G OSFP800 ports, and 2x SFP28 ports, with support for RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCEv2). The switch includes congestion management features such as Priority Flow Control and Explicit Congestion Notification, as well as dynamic load balancing, all of which enable efficient GPU-to-GPU communications. The QFX5140 fills the mid-tier of the HPE Juniper QFX family, between the high-end 102T QFX5240/QFX5250 and the entry-level 100GBE QFX 5100.

In addition, HPE announced the QFX5252 module for its 72GPU-per-rack AMD Helios turnkey package, which is designed for AI training and high-volume inference. The module combines CPUs, GPUs, and open Ethernet networking technology. HPE's Data Center Director now includes the QFX switch portfolio, providing a more integrated, automated, and centralized view of network components to improve visibility and troubleshooting.

Deepening Mist AI Integration

HPE is integrating Juniper's natural language Mist AI into HPE Aruba Central and vice versa, powered by the core AIOps Marvis engine. Marvis collects telemetry and user state data from routers, switches, access points, firewalls, and applications to detect and resolve networking problems. A key component is Marvis Actions, which uses AI to identify and prioritize remediation. These actions will be extended to Aruba Central by the end of the year. HPE is also melding the Aruba CX switching portfolio with Mist, giving customers AI-native visibility, zero-touch provisioning, wired assurance for Layer 2 access, service-level insights, and AI-driven support.

The Mist platform now includes predictive analytics for proactive maintenance, such as predicting potential optics failures using AI/ML. HPE also introduced an advanced reasoning AI agent for high-confidence remediation. This agent uses agentic AI to reason across diverse data streams, including millions of TAC cases and a contextual graph database from HPE Networking Data Center Director, to deliver precise root cause analysis inside the data center. The goal is to reduce problem diagnosis from hours or days to minutes, and even proactively resolve issues before they are noticed.

Unified SASE Orchestrator

HPE announced a new SASE Orchestrator package that ties together its SD-WAN and SSE with cloud security and a unified policy engine. The orchestrator uses AI to manage branch, remote user, and cloud connectivity from a single place. Customers can set security policies once and deploy them across many sites. The orchestrator promises simpler operations with AI, faster zero-trust adoption, and better user experience through intelligent traffic steering and application awareness.

Nvidia Updates

HPE also tightened integration with Nvidia via its HPE Private Cloud AI, a turnkey AI factory co-engineered with Nvidia. The package now supports Nvidia's Agent Toolkit software, including Nemotron open models, NemoClaw, and OpenShell secure runtime, to provide an agent operating system that reasons, monitors agent behavior, enforces policies, and reduces deployment risk. HPE is also bringing Nvidia Confidential Computing to the HPE AI Factory through HPE Services, protecting models and private data during execution for on-premises or sovereign deployments.

Zerto and Morpheus Enhancements

A new release of HPE Zerto Software lets customers identify rogue agent actions and rewind to a clean slate using data protection. The Private Cloud AI package now supports secure local agent registration, enabling customers to approve AI models, skills, and tools while adhering to governance and security policies. HPE Morpheus, which manages VMs, containers, and cloud resources from a single control plane, now offers a free first year of licenses for customers who buy HPE's VM Essentials package, along with free Zerto migration licenses. Zero-interest financing over three years further supports customer migration from legacy platforms.

These announcements reflect HPE's strategy to leverage the Mist platform and Marvis AI engine across its entire portfolio, from campus to data center to branch. The focus on agentic NetOps and integrated AI infrastructure positions HPE to address the growing demand for autonomous networking and scalable AI deployments in enterprise environments.

Source: Network World News