Can You Really Predict Network Outages Before They Happen? ThousandEyes Says So.

Quick Summary: Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) is a framework within ThousandEyes, Cisco’s new AI-driven network monitoring and assurance platform. DXA uses advanced monitoring tools to identify patterns in network performance that indicate the possibility of an outage — and has the potential to revolutionize response time for network outages and digital experience incidents.

The announcement of Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) at Cisco Live 2024 made waves across the networking industry. Powered by AI, DXA is a new ThousandEyes framework designed to predict and automatically resolve network issues, minimizing the need for manual intervention and signaling a major shift in how IT teams manage performance and reliability.

The prospect of automated digital assurance is certainly exciting. But for many IT pros, it can also be anxiety-inducing. What will DXA mean for entry-level networking jobs? Will network engineers be replaced altogether? And is DXA really as powerful as Cisco claims?

One thing is clear: Familiarity with ThousandEyes will become important for every networking professional working in Cisco environments. Network engineers who can demonstrate familiarity with the AI-driven platform are poised for success. Investing in an expert-led ENNA certification training can help you learn ThousandEyes skills so that you’re able to stay ahead of the curve with this and new AI tools, and not play catch-up.

How Does ThousandEyes DXA Work?

Let’s start with the basics. The ThousandEyes Digital Experience Assurance platform, or ThousandEyes DXA for short, is an AI-driven network monitoring and intelligence platform that promises to empower teams to “proactively detect, diagnose, and remediate issues; predict future conditions; and optimize connectivity to safeguard brand reputation, boost revenue, and maintain employee productivity.” It leverages a large network of cloud, enterprise, and internet vantage points to collect real-time data on network performance, routing, and connectivity. Sounds pretty impressive, right?

Enhancing digital assurance with automation and machine learning is a compelling concept — but can the AI-driven platform *really* do all those things? To look past the hype and towards the reality of how networking pros would use ThousandEyes DXA in their day-to-day, we asked 2x CCIE and CBT Nuggets trainer Jeff Kish for his take.

“ThousandEyes has proven itself capable of doing what it claims — to monitor the network and proactively alert us to issues before they become problems,” says Kish. “Adding an AI layer enhances its ability to see issues that it was unable to detect, but it doesn’t remove the network engineer from the equation.”

Kish says that while DXA certainly doesn’t replace the job of network engineers, it does deliver even more value to their work. This is because network engineers are now “given the tools to do our jobs with greater accuracy and efficiency.”

What Does ThousandEyes Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) Cover? 

The ThousandEyes DXA aims to create a map of your entire digital network. This includes cloud, enterprise, and endpoint agents alike. The goal of mapping the entire network is to give you complete visibility needed to identify issues in performance and understand how all your digital technologies are working together to deliver an experience to each end-user. 

DXA accomplishes this by deploying agents at the cloud, enterprise, and endpoint level to create a comprehensive map of your network. Let’s dive a little deeper into the type of agents that ThousandEyes uses to integrate.

Cloud Agents

ThousandEyes Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) uses cloud agents placed strategically across the globe to monitor how the network, applications, and services are working. These agents simulate user interactions and perform tests on specific paths, services, or APIs to provide complete visibility into any performance issues that arise. This helps organizations identify bottlenecks and make sure everything runs smoothly for globally distributed users.

Enterprise Agents

Enterprise agents are deployed within an organization's network and allow ThousandEyes to monitor internal and hybrid environments. These agents provide visibility into network paths, how various apps are performing, and the user experience by conducting synthetic tests and tracking real-time metrics.

Endpoint Agents

Endpoint agents are installed on end-user devices and allow ThousandEyes to monitor how things are working from the user’s perspective. These agents check if the internet connection is strong and functional, if all apps are running smoothly, and if the device itself is working well. This user-level visibility can help IT teams quickly find and fix problems so users have a better experience, whether they’re working in the office or from home.

What Does This Mean for Network Engineers? 

Remaining vigilant against common security threats is always top of mind for network engineers. The advanced AI-driven capabilities of ThousandEyes Digital Assurance should be music for networking pros' ears, since this allows them to ensure a higher quality of assurance across large networks. 

Rather than replacing network engineers or automating their job duties, the real benefit of using a tool like DXA is with faster resolution times for outages and other experience issues. By providing a continuous monitoring experience, junior network admins can use DXA to perform more advanced network assurance than they normally would be able to. If you’re a networking pro operating in Cisco environments, knowing how to leverage, implement, and understand ThousandEyes DXA will be a valuable skill going forward.

Learning How to Use ThousandEyes

Advanced tools like ThousandEyes can be a steep learning curve if you’re new to the platform. On-demand training taught by industry experts like Kish makes new tech easy to learn. The new Cisco ENNA certification course will show you how to use ThousandEyes tools to monitor network performance, analyze insights, automate routine network assurance tasks, and troubleshoot network problems at record speed. The training is designed to prepare you for the new ENNA certification exam, one of eight concentration exams you can take to qualify for the CCNP Enterprise.

In summary, ThousandEyes DXA is a powerful tool that helps network professionals deliver high-quality digital assurance. While it can’t predict the future in the literal sense, it does use pattern recognition to detect potential issues before outages occur, giving engineers valuable time to take preventive action. 

Human expertise remains essential: network pros must interpret DXA’s insights and apply them strategically to keep systems running smoothly. However, network engineers still need to interpret predictions and decide on a risk response strategy. Because of the advanced capabilities of ThousandEyes AI, familiarity with DXA will become a valuable skill for any networking professional.

Other resources to help you on your networking journey:

• More training: CCNP Enterprise (350-401 ENCOR) online training

• Tips from the pros: what to expect on the CCNP Enterprise

• Exam prep resource: free network certification exam study guide

• Find the right cert for you: download the Ultimate Networking Cert Guide