Juniper Networks launched its Metro-as-a-Service (MaaS) solution designed to provide carrier services for metro operators looking to handle more demanding workloads.

Developed alongside Iometrix atop carrier Ethernet standards from Mplify (formerly MEF), the offering provides metro-based operators with blueprints for building MEF 3.0-qualified network architectures.

The Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)-owned firm said the as-a-service offering “enables the coexistence of legacy services with modern cloud and AI era use cases – within a unified metro architecture.”

Both metro and long-haul networks are underprepared for the impact of AI workloads, according to a recent study from Ciena, with just 16% of surveyed operators admitting their optical networks were “very ready” for AI.

Juniper contends its MaaS offering will help operators meet the demands of distributed AI-driven applications and workloads across the edge.

“The solution reflects our ongoing innovation in metro networking while building on the capabilities of our latest-generation ACX and MX platforms,” the company said in a statement. “With the design fully validated, operators can begin realizing the operational benefits of MaaS immediately.”

Featuring a controller-agnostic, scale-out metro fabric, the offering supports both legacy and modern services as well as use cases such as edge AI inferencing and enterprise virtual private networks (VPNs).

Juniper tested the solution with Iometrix across more than 12,000 service test cases to ensure the offering “aligns with real-world service delivery models.”

The MaaS launch comes as Juniper continues to make inroads in the metro market.

Back in 2021, its executives outlined the need for a Cloud Metro to interface with physical and virtual network functions to better distribute services. A year later, the vendor would launch such an offering: providing specially optimized metro infrastructure, with packaged tools to help service providers ease deployments.