Juniper Mist IoT Assurance Overview Datasheet

Juniper Mist IoT Assurance is a cloud service that simplifies IT operations and secures connections for headless IoT as well as BYOD devices via a Multiple Pre-Shared Key (MPSK) mechanism. It incorporates a full suite of access control functionality leveraging MPSK or Private Pre-Shared Key (PPSK) as a new type of identity and policy vector. 

IoT Assurance provides a simple yet comprehensive way to onboard client devices without relying on a client MAC address, allowing dynamic traffic engineering and enforcing granular network access control. The service reduces overall IT operational cost with Pre-Shared Key (PSK) life cycle management and organization-level visibility at cloud scale.

While the number of IoT/OT devices in the industry is exponentially increasing, most of these client devices today are “headless” with limited or no support for 802.1X authentication or even browser support for captive portal onboarding. Enterprises need an easy way to onboard, segment, and manage the life cycle of IoT device credentials at scale. The same is true for BYOD devices that traditionally were associated with complex 802.1X onboarding solutions or cumbersome and less secure captive portal-based solutions. 

The MPSK mechanism solves these challenges with the onboarding of IoT and BYOD devices. IoT Assurance goes several steps further to make this service truly innovative and scalable while maintaining simplicity in operations. 

Juniper Mist IoT Assurance is a “MAC-less” and “NAC-less” onboarding service that can leverage MPSK as a device type and user/endpoint identity. With the ever-increasing trend in client MAC randomization, this onboarding technique proves invaluable for networks of the next decade. 

With PSK auto-expiration and PSK rotation, IoT Assurance allows IT to comply with password rotation security policies. PSK is used as a new type of identity to perform dynamic traffic transport based on the PSK role or assign traffic policies via the Juniper Mist WxLAN framework. 

PSK Portal creation enables BYOD on-boarding workflows by automating PSK generation based on user identity, leveraging SAML for an SSO experience. It enables seamless client device onboarding via mobile QR code or by typing a personalized passphrase without installing any client software.

Being 100% API programmable, Juniper Mist IoT Assurance can be easily integrated into any mobile device management solution to streamline IoT device provisioning or into any user-facing self-provisioning portal.

In the new era of MAC randomization in all major client operating systems, the Juniper MPSK service becomes a new type of identity storage. It allows seamless client onboarding without relying on registering MAC addresses, providing seamless user and IT experience, while allowing full segmentation and policy control as with traditional 802.1X authentication.

Juniper Mist IoT Assurance greatly simplifies Day 2 operations once the system is deployed at scale. Automatic PSK expiration in concert with automatic key rotation provides simple yet effective key migration technique that allows IT to keep PSKs regularly rotated and allows onsite personnel to avoid any disruptions in service during the key migration, no matter the scale of the deployment. Full PSK visibility provides an invaluable tool to verify key migration compliance across the entire organization.