The 10 Hottest Networking Products Of 2024

The hottest networking products and services to hit the market in 2024 had a major trend in common: AI.

AI-powered networking took the spotlight in 2024 as startups and industry incumbents alike took to the market with new networking management tools aimed at the AI era or offerings that benefited from an AI infusion.

It’s also safe to say that 2024 was the year of the platform play, with some of the most well-known players in the market such as Extreme Networks and Cisco Systems introducing or updating management platforms that blend networking and security with AI features behind the scenes. At the same time, these companies are also making product licensing a simpler experience in response to customer concerns over their increasingly sprawling IT environments.

Speaking of security, as networking and security, two once very siloed areas of IT, have come more closely tied together, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and the addition of more security features embedded within networking tools are becoming table stakes, as evidenced by Alikra's ZTNA offering and Fortinet's FortiOS updates.

With many options on the market to choose from this year, here are 10 of the hottest networking products of 2024.

Alkira ZTNA

Network infrastructure-as-a-service specialist Alkira in October introduced a cloud-based Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) service for its all-in-one cloud-based networking platform. The ZTNA offering

will further simplify security and networking for enterprises, especially as these environments grow increasingly complex, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said.

Alkira ZTNA's backbone is made up of Alkira Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs), or distributed points of presence that provide secure access and efficient traffic routing. Also part of the services' backbone is the Alkira SecureConnect Client, a secure remote access offering for end-users from any location. Alkira ZTNA can scale up and down on-demand to adapt to an enterprise's changing needs without large upfront investments or hardware installations, according to the company.

The new ZTNA offering will help unlock new business for channel partners that they may have been locked out of before, the 100 percent channel focused company told CRN.

Avatrix PaaS

Cloud networking upstart Aviatrix Systems in November began offering up its flagship platform in a new consumption option for enterprises.

Aviatrix Cloud Network Security Platform-as-a-Service (Aviatrix PaaS) is an as-a-service offering. The goal of the PaaS flavor of Avaitrix is to make the network and security management tool as simple and as easy to manage as a first-party service from cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure or Google. The offering will give enterprises the benefits of networking and network security, without the operational overhead, Avaitrix said.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is launching Aviatrix PaaS in a limited fashion with one of its most popular and successful use cases: Cloud Perimeter Security. The platform can be integrated with customers’ existing tools, APIs, and systems, according to Aviatrix.

Cisco Wi-Fi 7

At last month’s Cisco Live 2024 in Melbourne, Australia, the tech giant unveiled its first set of Wi-Fi 7-capable access points, including the CW 9176 and the CW 9178 access points, with the CW 9176 as the company’s premium, top-of-range offering for very large deployments. Cisco’s latest wireless product family has AI built in and offers out-of-the-box self-configuration. The access points also connect to Cisco Spaces, the company's IoT platform, to help enterprises turn their workspaces into smart spaces, the company said.

Perhaps most exciting for customers and partners is that the new access points are being offered with a unified subscription that includes the options for both cloud and premises-based management so that customers won’t have to pick between management platforms, which includes both the Meraki and Catalyst lines.

The Wi-Fi 7 access points is the first offering that Cisco is providing with the new unified subscription, which the company said represents the “future” of how Cisco will offer up licenses for its products.

Extreme Platform ONE

Extreme Networks this month launched a brand-new platform to improve the networking and security management experience for all stakeholders involved in network management and analytics, including SecOps and C-level executives, according to the networking specialist.

The Extreme Platform ONE brings together networking and security tools, including products from third-party networking and security vendors, such as Microsoft, with AI to radically simplify the network management experience by "composing" a workspace unique to the user, with every application they need in one place, according to the company. At the same time, Extreme's platform will also help to simplify product licensing for end users and partners.

Extreme Networks will be making more of the details around its simplified licensing closer to when Platform ONE will become generally available in the second half of 2025. Extreme Platform ONE can run on public cloud or private cloud environments, the company said.

Fortinet FortiOS

Fortinet’s flagship FortiOS platform, which combines networking and security operations, in April got an infusion with a slew of new features, including generative AI and data protection.

The latest operating system includes an integration with FortiAI, formerly known as Fortinet Advisor, natively within Fortinet’s central data lake, FortiAnalyzer, and its unified management console, FortiManager. The integrations improve threat analysis and response, according to Fortinet. FortiOS also now benefits from centralized data protection and FortiASIC, the company’s specialized compute that helps to accelerate network security. The platform also boasts SD-WAN, SASE, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), automation, provisioning, IoT and application performance features and digital experience monitoring,

All of FortiOS’ offerings can be served up in flexible consumption options for end customers, the company said.

Graphiant Data Assurance

Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) specialist Graphiant in December launched its Data Assurance service that gives businesses end-to-end control over and visibility of how data travels throughout the entire enterprise network, according to the company.

Graphiant said that the two main factors that drove a need for this offering are that data is increasingly distributed outside the enterprise network and at the edge of the network, and the increase of laws and industry rules aimed at regulating how data in motion is protected. The latest offering will give enterprises granular control of how data in motion is routed, precise monitoring and auditing of all data in flight, encryption of data in flight, and adaptive routing, said the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

Graphiant's Data Assurance service is globally available now.

HPE Aruba Central

The tried-and-true network management tool, HPE Aruba Networking Central got an upgrade earlier this year with an AI infusion. Now, the flagship platform allows for the third-party monitoring of customer networks, including networks equipped with competitor gear from the likes Cisco Systems and Palo Alto Networks.

HPE Aruba Networking Central this year was natively integrated with technology from OpsRamp, a company HPE acquired in 2023, for expanded observability. As a result, the platform also gained new visibility and experience monitoring features that provided addition of views into network devices such as wireless access points, switches, firewalls, and routers across a range of vendors.

The company in September said that network management across the entire networking stack and multiple vendors is a feat that's a first for the networking industry.

NTT Data Edge AI Platform

Solution provider giant NTT in July unveiled its edge AI Platform, a fully managed service that lets businesses deploy AI applications at the edge using smaller, more efficient language learning models.

The “ultralight” platform is being touted as the industry's first managed Edge AI solution that can power use cases specific to OT environments, such as manufacturing. The platform processes massive datasets on compact computing platforms using smaller and less costly machine learning models to serve up real-time AI insights, according to the company. NTT Data said that its groundbreaking AI platform includes all the systems, tools and capabilities required for AI at the edge and also addresses data discovery collection, integration, compute power and connectivity.

Riverbed AI Observability

Riverbed in May launched what the company referred to as its biggest release in years: An open, AI-powered observability platform aimed at filling in the blind spots that exist in complex IT environments that include public cloud and remote work environments, as well as zero Trust and SD-WAN architectures.

The AI-powered platform, which is available through channel partners, works by collecting full-fidelity data across a customer's entire IT stack, including from networks, IT infrastructure, applications, user experience, endpoints, and the cloud. From there, the platform applies AI to the data, including data from third party tools, to provide analysis and correlation, where root cause identification is determined, and automated remediations begin, which can reduce IT troubleshooting time and costs. The reporting can also be done through integrations with third-party IT services management tools, such as ServiceNow, according to the San Francisco-based company.

VersaOne

Standalone SASE leader Versa in November launched VersaONE, a universal, AI-powered SASE Platform that combines a range of security and connectivity products on a single platform. VersaONE includes SASE, Security Service Edge (SSE), SD-WAN, and SD-LAN products in a single place for partners and end users that can be licensed separately or together.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said that all products on the platform will use a shared AI engine, a Zero Trust foundation, and a scalable, multi-plane architecture. The VersaONE platform will help customers to reduce risk and improve resilience, while simplifying and lowering the costs of the IT infrastructure, Versa said.

VersaONE is available today and can be deployed in a shared, private, or sovereign infrastructure with a fully managed, co-managed, or self-managed model, the company said.