Juniper Networks releases cloud-delivered SD-WAN solution

Juniper Networks has released a cloud-delivered version of its SD-WAN solution. Contrail Service Orchestration now gives enterprises a simple way to manage WAN infrastructure, as well as branch LAN and WiFi networks deployed alongside it.

Although cloud is appealing to many organisations, there can be complexities when it comes to growth and scale. Although cloud can offer cost and agility benefits, cloud-delivered solutions should remove the need to run software.

Juniper Networks' chief product officer Manoj Leelanivas says that the company's SD-WAN as a service easily connects and manages the full suite of Juniper's branch and WAN solutions. Now any enterprise can take advantage of software-defined networking (SDN).

"This is a significant step in enabling our customers' journey to AI for IT, extending the SDN transformation beyond cloud and data centers to the branch and the WAN. With this launch, combined with our recent Mist Systems acquisition, we are making industry-leading strides in our bid to make SDN and AI for IT a reality for companies of all sizes," says Leelanivas.

Juniper Networks acquired Mist Systems this year. The deal closed in April.

The company says its SD-WAN as a service is a key part of the multicloud evolution. It allows customers to connect distributed infrastructure and orchestrate operations centrally. This scalable, open and future-ready solution offers customers the simplicity of a cloud-delivered service with the power of software-defined networking and security.

"This offering provides customers a new delivery model for Juniper's feature-rich WAN solution and includes a suite of new capabilities to support secure automation throughout the enterprise branch service deployment lifecycle:

• SD-WAN flexibility: Juniper's SD-WAN now supports more variations of passive redundant hybrid WAN links, internet breakout at the WAN edge CPE or centralized WAN hubs and topologies such as hub and spoke, partial mesh and dynamic full mesh. It has also been tested by third-party EANTC at scales above 10,000 spoke sites and is highly multi-tenant, allowing for unprecedented scale.
   
• Centrally managed branch LAN and WAN: Connecting Juniper's EX Series Ethernet switches to a single or dual WAN gateway of NFX or SRX Series devices allows customers to centrally automate the WAN and LAN policy and provisioning for secure connectivity.
   
• Managed security: Customers now have even more choices and control in managing their security needs, including integration with cloud security provider ZScaler and management of the next-gen firewall features of the SRX or NFX devices, including Juniper Sky ATP.
   
• Mist Systems integration: Mist, the leading provider in AI for IT with the world's first AI-driven wireless LAN, is now integrated in the new SD-WAN management interface. Customers can see operational and analytics data about the Wi-Fi alongside WAN, LAN and security.
   
• Open and adaptable solution: A flexible solution that can help enterprises quickly adapt and evolve, Juniper's SD-WAN enables customers to extend a secure SD-WAN to hubs and spokes in the cloud by simply adding a vSRX into a public cloud IaaS of choice. Additionally, Juniper's open standards-based architecture and open APIs allow for seamless systems integration and NetOps workflow automation.
   
• Juniper Financial Services offering: The acquisition of Juniper solutions for the enterprise is now easier through a variety of payment plans offered by Juniper Financial Services (JFS) at favourable terms to qualified customers. JFS provides financial simplicity with a single payment plan that covers bundled solutions, including Juniper's Contrail Service Orchestration as well as campus and branch hardware and software such as the Mist WLAN solution.