HPE: University of Plymouth's AI-Powered Campus Network

Name: HPE: University of Plymouth's AI-Powered Campus Network
Uploaded: 2026-07-22T11:11:52-04:00
Duration: 2 min 31 s
Description: Today’s students expect the best connectivity. University of Plymouth uses HPE Mist AI and Marvis to create a self-healing network to support 18,500 students and 3,000 staff. https://www.hpe.com

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

07/22/2026

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Transcript

expect the best and they've got so much choice out there. So for us, we need to offer the best. The university is based in the city centre of Plymouth. We've got about 18,500 students on campus, about 2,500-3,000 staff, and then we also look after 2,000 on-campus halls of residence bedrooms. Our legacy network was very traditional based. It operated well as a network, but it didn't integrate and offer many added benefits. What was really keen for us as we joined a digital strategy was to firstly offer a really good experience to staff and students in connectivity and getting those devices online, but then also to offer more to the wider IT department, look to integrate with other products that we use and give more feedback. Everything connects and relies on the network. It is that first layer, but it needs to do more these days. We got that new network. We looked at wireless first, but we were really impressed with what was on offer wireless-wise, so we quickly expanded that into wired and were equally impressed, so we were able to move forward with that. The differences are the analytics and the information that we now have of people connected to that new network. The Mist platform, the power of the cloud, the SDN network allows us to do more and find out problems. The automatic packet captures are fantastic for us and that information is just there and readily available to use. The Canvas fabric is really great for us and the network's very different now. We work on the same technology. We can push everything out to the edge. We've got micro-segmentation of traffic and the ability to control that. The architecture now is fantastic because everything is not script-based. It's not CLI. We control everything via Mist. We've got the capability of Marvis there, who's always on the lookout on our network, advising us, maybe you should look at this. This is down and AP is down there. An AP crashes, AI fixes it itself. It reboots the AP. It's back online with no interference from us, and that's really important because IT teams are shrinking these days, but we're expected to deliver more. Allowing the team to proactively fix that before the students complain about it helps their journey and it helps us offer them the best experience.

TL;DR

University of Plymouth replaced a traditional legacy network with HPE Mist AI and Marvis to serve 18,500 students and 3,000 staff across campus and residence halls.
The new platform delivers cloud-managed wired and wireless networking with automatic packet captures, micro-segmentation, and SDN architecture — eliminating CLI-based management.
Marvis AI continuously monitors the network and autonomously reboots failed access points, resolving issues before students experience disruption or need to report them.

Summary

University of Plymouth, a city-centre institution serving 18,500 students, 3,000 staff, and 2,000 on-campus residence bedrooms, replaced its traditional legacy network with HPE's Mist AI platform and Marvis virtual network assistant. The legacy infrastructure, while functional, lacked integration capabilities and offered limited visibility — a gap that became untenable as the university pursued a broader digital strategy. By adopting HPE Mist AI, the university gained cloud-managed wireless and wired networking, automatic packet captures, micro-segmentation via Canvas fabric, and AI-driven self-healing capabilities. Marvis continuously monitors the network, proactively identifying issues and autonomously rebooting failed access points without IT intervention. This autonomous remediation is especially critical as IT teams shrink while expectations grow. The result is a network that not only delivers reliable connectivity but actively improves the student and staff experience — resolving problems before users even notice them.

Chapters

0:00 - Student Expectations & Context
0:29 - Legacy Network Limitations
1:17 - Mist AI Platform Capabilities
1:53 - Marvis AI & Self-Healing Network

Key Quotes

0:00 "Students pay an awful lot of money to come to university these days and they expect the best and they've got so much choice out there. So for us, we need to offer the best."
0:57 "Everything connects and relies on the network. It is that first layer, but it needs to do more these days."
2:04 "An AP crashes, AI fixes it itself. It reboots the AP. It's back online with no interference from us, and that's really important because IT teams are shrinking these days, but we're expected to deliver more."

FAQ

What prompted University of Plymouth to replace its legacy network?

The legacy network functioned adequately but lacked integration with other IT systems and provided limited analytics or feedback. As the university pursued a digital strategy, it needed a network that could deliver better connectivity experiences and offer deeper insights to the broader IT department.

How does the Marvis AI assistant help the IT team manage the network?

Marvis continuously monitors the network and proactively alerts the team to potential issues. It can autonomously fix problems — such as rebooting a crashed access point — without any IT intervention, which is critical as IT teams shrink while service expectations increase.

Categories:

» Cybersecurity » Network Security
» Data Protection

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TL;DR

Summary

Chapters

Key Quotes

FAQ

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