Mist and VMware built a joint product that boasts interoperability between Mist Learning WLAN and VMware’s VeloCloud-based NSX SD-WAN. VMware tapped Mist Systems’ technology to bring artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and open programmability to the wireless LAN (WLAN) and WAN.

Mist Learning WLAN provides visibility into WiFi networks. It manages operations on Mist’s cloud architecture. The interoperability between Mist and VMware NSX will add reliability to users’ wireless LAN and WAN experience. While the two products will be continue to be sold separately, Jeff Aaron, Mist VP of marketing, said, "We plan to meet in a channel where common partners can sell an end-to-end solution."

According to Aaron, this joint product integration involves the two companies sharing "pertinent data via APIs for automation and insight." VMware will have access to Mist's WiFi service level data for insight into the wireless experience. And Mist will have access to data from VMware on the WAN experience that will be fed into Mist's AI engine for troubleshooting capabilities.

By unifying the two services it eliminates a number of operational challenges, such as isolating and identifying problems, managing network data, and seeing across the network. By providing interoperability between Mist and VMware, users can have a totally programmable and automated network.

Leveraging the AI capabilities of Mist, the joint offering automates tasks, including event correlation and anomaly detection, and it provides rich analytics from the LAN and WAN. This makes for quick fault isolation and remediation, trend detection, and predictive recommendations — eliminating network problems before they occur. Accessing the analytics from the LAN and WAN allows IT professionals to optimize network functions that impact the end-user.

Mist Systems began shipping its AI-driven WLAN in 2016 and has continued to grow its customer base and reseller network. In February it closed an over-subscribed $46 million Series C funding round.

This is just the most recent in a number of product integrations and partnerships for Mist. Earlier this year, Verizon selected Mist for its AI and machine learning to launch a software-defined wireless local area network (SD-WLAN). Also this year, the Mist Learning WLAN joined Palo Alto Networks’ application framework.

It has also garnered competition from Extreme Networks, which launched its Smart OnmiEdge this year. OnmiEdge, while Extreme won’t explicitly call it an SD-WLAN, provides a similar service as Mist — it spreads visibility and policy across unified wired and wireless infrastructure.