New educational technology applications and research data collection are driving massive change to both campus networks and R&E network operators. Increased demand for mobility, student and researcher collaboration, digitization of everything, and cloud applications is driving bandwidth demand and creating increasingly complex networks. NFV and SDN continue to gain traction, as they enable R&E network operators to achieve network agility and meet the expectation of great service reliability and performance. This ensures that trust, student enrollment, facility retention, and funding isn’t lost. Ciena’s Blue Planet Network Health Predictor—an advanced analytics application that uses predictive analytics and machine learning—is here to help.