AssetXpert to use AI machine reasoning to proactively address IT and cyber threats

If you haven’t already heard, the First Phase of Netformx AssetXpert 3.0 is close to being available and will raise the bar on network maintenance by finding current issues that can quickly turn into threats to reliability and resilience, whether IT or cyber. The solution then prioritizes the firestorm of threats and alerts so you can focus your efforts on the issues with the greatest impact. You can learn more about how AssetXpert 3.0 can continually improve and maintain your customers’ multivendor networks in my previous blog.

But let’s talk for a minute about why proactively addressing events is more important than ever.

The migration to software-based, digital networks has caused network maintenance to evolve beyond physical devices and wiring. Assessments must include cloud, end-point devices with IP addresses, as well as firewalls that implement logical connectivity. This digital environment dramatically increases the number, frequency, variety, and severity of cybersecurity threats. End-of-life, physical and logical structural or topology risks need to be identified and addressed before they escalate into service disruptions.

Waiting until a risk causes a problem is too late. What’s needed is proactive assessment of multivendor network assets and changes that can potentially lead to network degradation.

To address this challenge, we are evolving Netformx AssetXpert into a completely new solution—AssetXpert 3.0. It is being developed to provide deep predictive analysis of network maintenance risks using a powerful AI machine reasoning engine. It’s a game-changer.

Machine reasoning, not just machine learning

AI, machine learning (ML), and large language models (LLMs) are all the buzz but mean many things to many people. Let’s clarify what machine learning does and why it is not the right solution for network maintenance risk assessments.

ML and LLMs gather huge sample sizes (generally from the internet), learn from it, and identify things that happen together—correlations. However, as we were all taught in Statistics 101, correlations are not causation. Yes, ML may tell you that when people swim more in the sea, they eat more ice cream. Sure, that’s because they both occur in the summer. But, in reality, there is no causation between eating ice cream and swimming. ML answers may sound smart but are actually fairly superficial.

The “why” or root cause needs to be determined by logical reasoning. As opposed to machine learning, machine reasoning creates probability assessments of what can happen. With AssetXpert 3.0 in the early days it will include some minor machine reasoning capabilities. But we will evolve its machine reasoning capabilities over time so that you’ll be able to understand:

• The scenario
• Its probability of occurrence
• Its predicted impact
• Why the conclusion was drawn
• What you can do to remediate the situation

Once we have enhanced the AI capabilities in Phase Two, you’ll no longer need to plow through thousands of alerts and manually determine root cause, since AssetXpert 3.0 will deliver:

• Predictive maintenance assessments
• Prioritize hundreds of vulnerabilities based on their likelihood and potential impact
• Compare the current network posture to historical postures

Machine learning can still be useful to network maintenance when the issue is a common one that is addressed on the internet. However, machine reasoning provides answers for issues and network situations that may be unique or have only small sample sizes, such as problems with a specific network configuration.

How MSPs can use AssetXpert 3.0 to mitigate customer network risks

Netformx AssetXpert 3.0 machine reasoning will analyze—in context—the details of a specific network situation to determine vulnerability causation. The assessments focus on cyber and end-of-life vulnerabilities, including topology and segmentation.

For example, MSP operations might encounter:

• Network segmentation leak. If an assessment shows that there is a path between a secure network segment (like corporate financials) and an open segment to the internet, a bad actor could gain access to confidential information. Machine reasoning understands what a bad actor could do in this situation. It then identifies the potential impact of the intrusion and recommends what you can do to fix it.
• Router vulnerability. If an assessment shows that a switch is nearing end-of-life, there is a strong possibility it will be hacked. The assessment predicts the risks involved in not updating the switch and determines the urgency for replacement.

While AssetXpert 3.0 out of the gate will help you to be a leader in mitigating customer network risk, it will only get better when our AI machine reasoning engine is fully evolved in Phase Two.

You can be confident that AssetXpert predictive network maintenance will provide the information you need to keep your customer networks reliable and resilient, have prioritized insights for changes needed, and accomplish your network operations efficiently.

Learn more about AssetXpert 3.0 in the datasheet and the product update article.

Reach out to your account manager or sales@netformx.com with any questions or opportunities. We are happy to help!