Customer Success Story
Making a positive difference in the community
Staffordshire County Council is responsible for the economic growth, social care, education, highways, transportation, and more for this community of 860,000 people in the heart of the UK. The council is served by more than 4,000 dedicated staff across 120 locations. Staffordshire migrated to a Juniper AI-Native Network to deliver better user experiences and streamline IT operations.
Overview
| Company | Staffordshire County Council |
| Industry | Government and Non-Profit |
| Products used | AP34, Wi-Fi Assurance, Marvis VNA |
| Region | EMEA |
4,000
Productive workforce
Staff rely on Juniper wireless
120
Easy deployments at council sites
Council sites rely on Juniper Wireless
100%
Simplified operations
Better visibility into the wireless user experience
The everyday work of running Staffordshire was putting a heavy strain on the legacy wireless networks in the administrative offices, libraries, and social care sites. Staff frequently complained about slow and unreliable Wi-Fi, and the aging wireless LAN controller architecture was increasingly difficult to manage.
One of the council’s guiding principles is to encourage innovation and to challenge the status quo when it comes to its mission of making a positive difference for the community. The IT team took that principle to heart and considered new options after 15 years with the same network vendor.
“We took the opportunity to look at other vendors,” said Matilda Elwell, Technical Team Leader for Networking and Security at Staffordshire County Council. “You can get stuck in your choices so it’s important to see what’s new.”
Staffordshire Council chose the Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform, which delivers advanced AI for IT operations (AIOps) to enable exceptional digital experiences for staff and community members, support future needs, and align with its cloud-first philosophy.
AI-Native Networking supports the council’s operations
With more than nine years of AI and ML delivered from a microservices cloud, the Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform makes every connection more reliable, measurable, and secure for every device, user, and application.
Juniper AP34 wireless access points work in conjunction with the Juniper Mist microservices cloud to deliver high-performance Wi-Fi 6E connectivity at the council’s locations. The network can be centrally managed through the Juniper Mist portal.
Juniper Mist Wireless (Wi-Fi) Assurance automates operations to make the Wi-Fi predictable, reliable, and measurable and provides unique visibility into user service levels.
Juniper’s Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA) uses a conversational interface and GenAI for intuitive interactions and provides prescriptive actions, automated operations, and integrated help desk functions.
Juniper AP34 Wireless Access Point
A smooth transition and a better user experience
The upgrade to a Juniper AI-Native network at 120 council locations was smooth. With fast, reliable Wi-Fi 6E connectivity for their devices, staff can use business-critical applications and videoconferencing whether they are working to grow the local economy, maintaining beautiful parks, or helping youth and adults in need.
Better visibility means a better user experience
The Juniper network uses data-driven insights to empower users with the best possible experiences and to accelerate troubleshooting for IT. With security built in, Staffordshire libraries can confidently offer public Wi-Fi as a benefit to the community.
Streamlined deployment and operations
Deploying the new network was “nice and easy” says Robert Grimley, Senior ICT Support Officer at Staffordshire County Council. “With the Mist portal, we have everything we need to manage the network in one place.”
Applying a cloud-first philosophy to the network has brought additional efficiencies, including eliminating on-premises wireless controllers in the data centers.
Ready for the future
Staffordshire Council is ready for what comes next, including a planned upgrade to Windows 11.
Published December 2024