The HiveManager Alexa Skill Could be the Voice Assistant for IT

on November 5, 2018 at 2:44 pm

Aerohive Networks provides wireless networking to medium-sized and larger businesses. They utilize cloud management, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to do so. Recently, they announced the development of their own Alexa skill, called Aerohive HiveManager Shortcuts to their HiveManager network management application.

Using Alexa to Simplify Network Management Tasks

The Aerohive HiveManager Shortcuts skill will be released by the end of November and will be available at no additional cost to current HiveManger customers. The skills requires users to have an Alexa-enabled device or the Alexa app on a phone, to pair and authenticate an already existing HiveManager. The initial release will support 100+ specific requests, with more to come in the future. It will also support 15 multi-step conversations. Some example requests:

Were there any configuration changes to the network since I last logged in?
Were there any new infrastructure devices added to the network since I last logged in?
Have any infrastructure devices been taken offline since I last logged in and if so when?
Have any infrastructure devices rebooted since I last logged in and if so when?
Have any Clients failed to authenticate to the network in the last hour and if so provide a list to me?
Are there any Clients with Poor Health on the network at this time and if so provide a list to me?
How is my network doing compared to others of similar size and configuration with respect to bandwidth usage?
How is my network doing compared to others of similar size and configuration with respect to Client Health?
What are the hostnames of the top 5 busiest Clients and their usage summary?
What are the Top 5 applications being used on the network and the bandwidth each of them has consumed in the last hour?

The 15 multi-step conversations include

Drilling down to a specific client’s experience during a specific session or over a period of time
Reporting the operational effectiveness of a network infrastructure device at a specific time or over a period of time
Onboarding an infrastructure device using a serial number and applying a pre-configured network and security policy to the device

Is Voice the Future of IT?

Aerohive stated in their announcement that adding this Alexa skill to their HiveManager application has been a top request from IT departments looking to further simplify network management and boost efficiencies. Aerohive definitely views voice as having a role in IT. Alan Cuellar Amrod, senior vice president and general manager of Products for Aero hive Networks commented,

Nobody believes that IT departments, even lean IT departments, will shift in the short term to 100 percent voice interaction to control their infrastructure. However, providing busy IT personnel, who are on the go or away from their workstation, the ability to easily query client and network analytics, as well as accomplish routine tasks, such as onboarding network devices with just your voice, has been a top ask for quite some time.

Like most other companies experimenting with voice, Aerohive sees a huge potential in voice’s inclusion and application to their existing products. However, also like many other companies, Aerohive views voice as complementary to an experience, not the entire makeup of an experience. Of course, once released, we will really be able to tell just how complementary voice is to IT.

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