Juniper first started to talk about its Unite framework back in September 2015 as a way to bring hardware and software together. On Jan. 31, Juniper took the next step with Unite, introducing a new hardware switch and an updated version of its Network Director software.
Paul Obsitnik, Vice President, Portfolio/Product Marketing at Juniper Networks, said Unite is an architecture to bring the benefits of the cloud to the entire enterprise, including campus, branch and data center environments. Obsitnik added that since announcing this architecture, Juniper has updated the components so customers can meet new and evolving technology needs for every part of their enterprise.
“We first addressed our campus capabilities to help customers manage and operationalize those environments in a more efficient way,” Obsitnik said. “Then late last year, we unveiled Unite Cloud-Enabled Branch, which delivers SD-WAN capabilities and allows customers to deploy and manage branch solutions through a single pane of glass.”
The new piece announced this week is called Unite Cloud and is designed specifically for the data center and integrating with the hybrid, multi-cloud.
“Unite Cloud provides our customers with the building blocks to create and manage complex data center environments so they can embrace the cloud seamlessly,” Obsitnik said.
Among the building blocks for Unite Cloud is the new QFX5110 switch, that Obsitnik described as being an evolution of Junipers popular QFX5100 switch and can be used in conjunction with other switches in Juniper’s lineup. The QFX5110 is a fixed configuration switch with 48 ports.
“The QFX5110 is designed for customers who need increased bandwidth across the data center to support growing application traffic from rack to rack or up the spine, among other needs,” Obsitnik said. “The QFX5110 increases uplink speed between spine and leaf from 40 GB to 100 GB, which is a substantial increase.”
“The switch also supports enhanced tunneling for customers who’d like to connect data centers more efficiently,” he added.
On the software side, the new Juniper Network Director is being updated to version 3.0 providing improved visualization and control for both physical and virtual hardware. Additionally Juniper has its Contrail Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller that is also a management platform.
“Contrail Networking is an SDN controller that enables more flexible and automated networking to rapidly adjust to the dynamic needs of cloud architectures,” Obsitnik said. “Contrail Cloud combines the networking capabilities Contrail Networking with Juniper’s OpenStack distribution to create a turnkey cloud orchestration and automation platform.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
