As the year comes to an end it’s always interesting to look back at the changes in the industry and the progress that we made as a company in the last year. There were many trends that emerged or took further hold of the industry in 2014. Let’s take a look at them and see how Juniper delivered innovation in these areas. Cloud computing and the need for on-demand resources was a big one. The open source movement is continuing to grow in the cloud space and OpenStack and CloudStack are gaining momentum. The Dev/Ops movement and the need for automation of IT resources was another big trend in the news. We saw Dev/Ops extend to networking equipment like the top of rack switch, when it had previously been mainly for server configuration. Overlay networks took hold in 2014 with the likes of Juniper’s Contrail and VMware’s NSX gaining momentum. New network fabric architectures were introduced like IPClos that is popular with the MSDC’s or Massively Scalable Data Center Operators and Spine and Leaf architectures that offer simplified deployment and management. The rise of the Open Compute Project and its move to include networking was a bit of a surprise for me. There is certainly something going on there.
Openstack/Cloudstack Integration
Cloud computing is transforming the way business is done today. It’s not hard to see why when you consider all the benefits that the cloud promises such as flexibility, business agility and economies of scale. As you look into the underlying layers of compute, storage and network, there is complexity in managing such an infrastructure in a dynamic environment. Organizations that are building clouds need a platform to automate the deployment of infrastructure. In addition to offerings from commercial vendors this type of software stack is being developed by the user community of open source organizations. In the interests of being open and offering our customers choices Juniper announced support for OpenStack back in 2013. We continued this momentum by announcing support for CloudStack in 2014. For more on CloudStack see, CloudStack and Juniper’s MetaFabric, Enabling Private and Public Cloud.
Automation Integration with Puppet, Chef and Ansible
Juniper has always been about being open. We serve a diverse set of customers with different use cases who like to use different tool sets. Back in 2013 we announced support for Puppet. We kept up this momentum by later announcing support for Chef and then for Ansible in 2014. There are sysadmin using Puppet or Chef to manipulate infrastructure as code. Because we are open, we’ve productize the capability to work with these tools into both our hardware and software solutions. Ultimately this gives our customers greater flexibility, without having to do a costly rip and replace of their infrastructure, in choosing which automation tools to use. Of course Juniper has had on the box automation as a part of JUNOS for many years. For more on automation see, Automation with Chef, Puppet and Ansible.
Showing posts with label juniper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label juniper. Show all posts
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Making the Transition to an Open SDN Architecture in the Enterprise Private Cloud
Enterprise IT is moving away from acting as siloed service organizations to aligning with the business’ goals to help their organizations enhance their business agility, value and customer experience. Many of these organizations are moving to a cloud computing model to achieve these goals, but they haven’t determined the best strategy for making this transition.
Transitioning to the cloud will help these organizations accelerate innovation and business agility by emphasizing a number of important factors. Adaptability is one. Seamless scale, both upward and downward, is another. Network intelligence that will provide proactive resource optimization is a third.
To make this transition, organizations need the right infrastructure, and they must be prepared to answer questions regarding SDN, orchestration, security, network protocols and many other issues.
These are addressed by two application-aware architectures for the enterprise private cloud:
1. Juniper Networks’ open SDN architecture
2. A proprietary programmable architecture that requires investment in a centralized controller and application-aware switch combination.
Transitioning to the cloud will help these organizations accelerate innovation and business agility by emphasizing a number of important factors. Adaptability is one. Seamless scale, both upward and downward, is another. Network intelligence that will provide proactive resource optimization is a third.
To make this transition, organizations need the right infrastructure, and they must be prepared to answer questions regarding SDN, orchestration, security, network protocols and many other issues.
These are addressed by two application-aware architectures for the enterprise private cloud:
1. Juniper Networks’ open SDN architecture
2. A proprietary programmable architecture that requires investment in a centralized controller and application-aware switch combination.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Announcing Juniper's Most Highly-Available Campus Distribution Switch
Recently Juniper Networks announced the EX4600 switch that is built for the distribution layer in campus networks. It is designed for IT networking teams of enterprises and SMBs who are rolling out new applications and services and require higher performance to support them. This compact switch delivers innovations that were developed in the data center including ISSU for hitless upgrades, Insight Technology for performane monitoring and 40GbE ports for high speed uplinks. It works as a standalone switch as well as in Virtual Chassis and MC-LAG architectures as an options providing simplified management and network resiliency.
IT organizations are concerned about having sufficient switching performance to support increasing access to applications in the cloud from the campus. They need to support diverse devices for the current BYOD trend as well as support the demands of services like VDI, the growing use of wireless access and unified communications. As they continue to scale, designing their operations to accommodate increasing volumes of traffic, IT organizations are concerned about managing secure access, connectivity and bandwidth usage. However, despite the increasing and ever changing network usage patterns and the demands of supporting more devices and services IT teams are still expected to make things work with limited staffing resources and budgets. What the IT teams require is an easy-to-manage solution that delivers high-performance connectivity at an affordable price.
“More than three-quarters of the IT organizations we surveyed have either already standardized their campus networks on 10 GbE or are actively planning a move from 1 GbE to 10 GbE. Drivers include bandwidth-intensive applications, current or anticipated traffic levels and falling costs of the technology,” said Bob Laliberte, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.
IT organizations are concerned about having sufficient switching performance to support increasing access to applications in the cloud from the campus. They need to support diverse devices for the current BYOD trend as well as support the demands of services like VDI, the growing use of wireless access and unified communications. As they continue to scale, designing their operations to accommodate increasing volumes of traffic, IT organizations are concerned about managing secure access, connectivity and bandwidth usage. However, despite the increasing and ever changing network usage patterns and the demands of supporting more devices and services IT teams are still expected to make things work with limited staffing resources and budgets. What the IT teams require is an easy-to-manage solution that delivers high-performance connectivity at an affordable price.
“More than three-quarters of the IT organizations we surveyed have either already standardized their campus networks on 10 GbE or are actively planning a move from 1 GbE to 10 GbE. Drivers include bandwidth-intensive applications, current or anticipated traffic levels and falling costs of the technology,” said Bob Laliberte, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.
Friday, April 25, 2014
A Network Fabric for New Applications in the Data Center
The Network Challenge with Deploying Applications
Thanks to virtualization organizations can bring up new applications and services quickly. Unfortunately, many data center networks don’t let you fully capitalize on the business agility that virtualization and modern application architectures provide. Traditional network architectures are too slow and too cumbersome to configure. For true agility, enterprises need a high-performance, low-latency fabric network that can be managed like a single, logical switch.
Today’s mid-sized and large-scale data centers are built with high-performance blade and rack servers, which typically run multiple VMs, which in turn run increasingly modular, web- and cloud-based applications. These modern applications are driving increased traffic levels and different traffic patterns, which place specific demands on the data center network.Critical business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) are divided into multiple modules. As a result, relatively simple operations such as entering an order can trigger 100 or more individual transactions, each imposing its own latency. Some applications, including eCommerce applications, even behave dynamically, spinning up new instances or migrating workloads in response to traffic loads.
Their distributed nature means modern applications are spread across racks of servers, each served by multiple switches. The applications generate a tremendous amount of server-to-server, or east-west, traffic as the various modules communicate with one another. Multi-tier network architectures aren’t well matched to modern applications. They force this east-west traffic to first travel north and south, up and down the network tree, before arriving at its ultimate destination, adding significant latency that can cause application performance to degrade under load.
Thanks to virtualization organizations can bring up new applications and services quickly. Unfortunately, many data center networks don’t let you fully capitalize on the business agility that virtualization and modern application architectures provide. Traditional network architectures are too slow and too cumbersome to configure. For true agility, enterprises need a high-performance, low-latency fabric network that can be managed like a single, logical switch.
Today’s mid-sized and large-scale data centers are built with high-performance blade and rack servers, which typically run multiple VMs, which in turn run increasingly modular, web- and cloud-based applications. These modern applications are driving increased traffic levels and different traffic patterns, which place specific demands on the data center network.Critical business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) are divided into multiple modules. As a result, relatively simple operations such as entering an order can trigger 100 or more individual transactions, each imposing its own latency. Some applications, including eCommerce applications, even behave dynamically, spinning up new instances or migrating workloads in response to traffic loads.
Their distributed nature means modern applications are spread across racks of servers, each served by multiple switches. The applications generate a tremendous amount of server-to-server, or east-west, traffic as the various modules communicate with one another. Multi-tier network architectures aren’t well matched to modern applications. They force this east-west traffic to first travel north and south, up and down the network tree, before arriving at its ultimate destination, adding significant latency that can cause application performance to degrade under load.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
The Critical Role of the Business Edge Network
The Service Provider’s Challenge
Businesses are increasingly using service providers to host critical applications and data in order to better control the security and availability of the data and to mitigate the expenses associated with hosting and serving data locally to the entire business user base. They access these applications and data over the service provider’s business edge network. This creates a challenge for the service provider, because their customers measure the success of the network by its ability to handle critical data and provide a superior user experience. With more and more applications and data centralized, the importance of the network, and its role in the success of the business, becomes ever more critical.
Market forces have created an environment of unpredictability for the service provider. Mobile devices, new applications, and the flood of new content place a direct strain on the business edge network, forcing the business and the service provider to address the network in creative ways. Maintaining and evolving the end-user experience is critical to the success of the network and key to enabling the service provider to meet its business goals.
The business user base, places considerable expectations on the network. Users expect their business e-mail and voice over IP calls to work flawlessly, while also expecting mobile video and applications to perform seamlessly. The impact of network performance is real and must be factored into the design of future business networks. This challenges the business edge provider to optimize the design and find ways to reduce the cost in the face of the increasingly complex and growing demand for a high-quality end-user experience.
Businesses are increasingly using service providers to host critical applications and data in order to better control the security and availability of the data and to mitigate the expenses associated with hosting and serving data locally to the entire business user base. They access these applications and data over the service provider’s business edge network. This creates a challenge for the service provider, because their customers measure the success of the network by its ability to handle critical data and provide a superior user experience. With more and more applications and data centralized, the importance of the network, and its role in the success of the business, becomes ever more critical.
Market forces have created an environment of unpredictability for the service provider. Mobile devices, new applications, and the flood of new content place a direct strain on the business edge network, forcing the business and the service provider to address the network in creative ways. Maintaining and evolving the end-user experience is critical to the success of the network and key to enabling the service provider to meet its business goals.
The business user base, places considerable expectations on the network. Users expect their business e-mail and voice over IP calls to work flawlessly, while also expecting mobile video and applications to perform seamlessly. The impact of network performance is real and must be factored into the design of future business networks. This challenges the business edge provider to optimize the design and find ways to reduce the cost in the face of the increasingly complex and growing demand for a high-quality end-user experience.
Does E-VPN Spell the End for OTV?
If you are considering how best to do Layer 2 stretch for virtual machine mobility, then you might be considering Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV). OTV designed by Cisco to offer L2 stretch with what they said was an easy to deploy protocol. It was only available on the Nexus switching product line, which didn’t support VPLS/MPLS. Until recently MPLS/VPLS was Juniper’s recommended technology for network segmentation and Layer 2 stretch, which Cisco also offers on the ASR routers. We’ve recently announced E-VPN, which is MPLS/VPLS based and brings all of the benefits of VPLS and then some. Cisco has announced E-VPN on the ASR router as well. Now that E-VPN is available, maybe it’s time to consider your best option. Let’s take a look at why OTV isn’t the best choice for VM mobility and why E-VPN is.
Why OTV was Invented
OTV has been in the Cisco’s news announcements, highlighted at Cisco Live and featured in several Cisco blogs. It’s something I’ve been meaning to cover along with my blogs on LISP and VXLAN as these all get discussed together as parts of a complete solution for live VM migration. Cisco first announced OTV on Feb. 8, 2010. Overlay Transport Virtualization is a Cisco proprietary protocol which provides Layer 2 extensions, over IP, to interconnect remote data centers. Cisco claims that the OTV is a simpler technology than MPLS/VPLS, which is a standards-based and proven technology for network segmentation and Layer 2 Extension. They said that OTV can be provisioned within minutes, using only four commands, and that it provides increased scalability (however without seeing the independent studies we don’t know if this is true). It was only offered it only on the Nexus 7000, which didn’t offer MPLS/VPLS technology. With OTV, Cisco pushed yet another proprietary protocol that is not as well proven as standards-based MPLS/VPLS or the newer E-VPN. Cisco supports VPLS on the ASR router so it is curious that they did OTV on the Nexus which doesn’t sit at the right place in the network to do L2 Stretch. The Cisco ASR, like the Juniper MX, is meant to do L2 stretch at the data center edge, not in the data center core where the Nexus switches sit.
Why OTV was Invented
OTV has been in the Cisco’s news announcements, highlighted at Cisco Live and featured in several Cisco blogs. It’s something I’ve been meaning to cover along with my blogs on LISP and VXLAN as these all get discussed together as parts of a complete solution for live VM migration. Cisco first announced OTV on Feb. 8, 2010. Overlay Transport Virtualization is a Cisco proprietary protocol which provides Layer 2 extensions, over IP, to interconnect remote data centers. Cisco claims that the OTV is a simpler technology than MPLS/VPLS, which is a standards-based and proven technology for network segmentation and Layer 2 Extension. They said that OTV can be provisioned within minutes, using only four commands, and that it provides increased scalability (however without seeing the independent studies we don’t know if this is true). It was only offered it only on the Nexus 7000, which didn’t offer MPLS/VPLS technology. With OTV, Cisco pushed yet another proprietary protocol that is not as well proven as standards-based MPLS/VPLS or the newer E-VPN. Cisco supports VPLS on the ASR router so it is curious that they did OTV on the Nexus which doesn’t sit at the right place in the network to do L2 Stretch. The Cisco ASR, like the Juniper MX, is meant to do L2 stretch at the data center edge, not in the data center core where the Nexus switches sit.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Enhancing VM Mobility with VxLAN, OVSDB and EVPN
Organizations are increasingly using virtual machine mobility to optimize server resources, ensure application performance and to aid in disaster avoidance. Typically VM live migration has relied on increasing the scale of the L2 broadcast domain to ensure that the VMs can be reached after migrations using their current addressing. This has resulted in the increasing use of VLANs and the need for L2 extension over the WAN. As a result organizations are looking for ways overcome the limitations with VLAN scale and for methods to extend the L2 domain over the WAN that ensure the best performance. VxLAN has emerged as an alternative technology to VLANs, and EVPN has emerged at a better way to transport VMs over the WAN. Together these technologies can enable VM live migration over the WAN, or long distance vMotion in VMware parlance, but they need to all work together effectively and this is where OSVDB, VxLAN routing and a new technology from Juniper called ORE come in to play.
VxLAN Increases VLAN Scale
Organizations are increasingly looking to VxLAN as a solution. The primary goals behind this network architecture is to increase traditional VLAN limits from 4,094 and to enable VM mobility across Layer 3 subnets. VxLAN is a tunneling technology and is used to create an overlay network so that virtual machines can communicate with each other and to enable the migration of VMs both within a data center and between data centers. VxLAN enables multi-tenant networks at scale, as a component of these logical, software-based networks that can be created on-demand. VxLAN enables enterprises to leverage capacity wherever it’s available by supporting VM live migration. VxLAN implements a Layer 2 network isolation technology using MAC in IP encapsulation that uses a 24-bit segment identifier to scale beyond the 4K limitations of VLANs.
VxLAN Increases VLAN Scale
Organizations are increasingly looking to VxLAN as a solution. The primary goals behind this network architecture is to increase traditional VLAN limits from 4,094 and to enable VM mobility across Layer 3 subnets. VxLAN is a tunneling technology and is used to create an overlay network so that virtual machines can communicate with each other and to enable the migration of VMs both within a data center and between data centers. VxLAN enables multi-tenant networks at scale, as a component of these logical, software-based networks that can be created on-demand. VxLAN enables enterprises to leverage capacity wherever it’s available by supporting VM live migration. VxLAN implements a Layer 2 network isolation technology using MAC in IP encapsulation that uses a 24-bit segment identifier to scale beyond the 4K limitations of VLANs.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Optimizing EVPN for Virtual Machine Mobility over the WAN
Organizations need to insure that their applications are available and performing. Server virtualization helps by enabling virtual machine mobility. If a server is overworked or will be unavailable vMotion can be used to migrate live workloads to another server in the current data center or in another data center. This requires that the addressing including the MAC, IP address and VLAN ID remain the same so that sessions are not dropped when the VM move happens. This is done by extending the L2 domain to the new location, know as Layer 2 stretch. Within a subnet this is easy to do. Across subnets in the data center it becomes more difficult. Doing live migration over the WAN introduces considerable challenges. Juniper has introduced a number of technologies to make virtual machine live migration possible.
The challenge with VM mobility is how to do the Layer 2 stretch in a way that ensures that the VM can be reached after it is moved. There are a number of issues that need to be dealt with. The MAC and IP address no longer pinned to a site or to an interface as they have moved with the VM. You need fast convergence of network paths as VM moves so that traffic will reach it quickly. You need ingress and egress traffic convergence and optimization to avoid having traffic go through the former default gateway after the VM has moved. You need learning of the effects of the live motion event and information distribution control so that the network isn’t impacted by signaling traffic. You need proper L2 & L3 interaction so that everything happens in a timely manner to ensure the best experience for the users of the applications that are affected by the VM move. VPLS has been the traditional methods of doing this, and now Juniper is supporting EVPN to provide enhancements to the solution.
The challenge with VM mobility is how to do the Layer 2 stretch in a way that ensures that the VM can be reached after it is moved. There are a number of issues that need to be dealt with. The MAC and IP address no longer pinned to a site or to an interface as they have moved with the VM. You need fast convergence of network paths as VM moves so that traffic will reach it quickly. You need ingress and egress traffic convergence and optimization to avoid having traffic go through the former default gateway after the VM has moved. You need learning of the effects of the live motion event and information distribution control so that the network isn’t impacted by signaling traffic. You need proper L2 & L3 interaction so that everything happens in a timely manner to ensure the best experience for the users of the applications that are affected by the VM move. VPLS has been the traditional methods of doing this, and now Juniper is supporting EVPN to provide enhancements to the solution.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Connecting Islands of Resources in an SDN Data Center
Application Agility is Critical
Organizations are rolling out new applications that they use to drive the business. These applications are virtualized. They are increasingly distributed, dynamic and they can span locations. They connect employees, customers and the supply chain. They make employees more productive, help customers to engage with the business and facilitate better inventory management. They also provide timely business intelligence. This means revenue to the organization. Time to deploy is critical. Organizations need to be agile when it comes to deploying new applications.
The problem is that the network is an obstacle. Due to the complexity of configuring the network speed of deployment is an issue. There are so many things that need to be configured. You need to configure route mapping, port mapping, VLAN mapping, QOS, NAT, ACLs and the list goes on. The networking side hasn’t changed since it was invented decades ago. It takes weeks to configure the network connections that are needed when you deploy an application.
Organizations have been using server virtualization for years to overcome the limitations of physical server virtualization. When you have to deploy a physical server it could take weeks from the time you first knew you needed it until it was up and running. Now provisioning virtual servers only takes minutes. With virtualized servers we realized agility and resilience and improved physical server utilization. We need the same type of benefits for the network. You can’t let the network get in the way when you need to move fast and gain the advantages of new applications. Organizations are looking for ways to provision the network work quickly.
Organizations are rolling out new applications that they use to drive the business. These applications are virtualized. They are increasingly distributed, dynamic and they can span locations. They connect employees, customers and the supply chain. They make employees more productive, help customers to engage with the business and facilitate better inventory management. They also provide timely business intelligence. This means revenue to the organization. Time to deploy is critical. Organizations need to be agile when it comes to deploying new applications.
The problem is that the network is an obstacle. Due to the complexity of configuring the network speed of deployment is an issue. There are so many things that need to be configured. You need to configure route mapping, port mapping, VLAN mapping, QOS, NAT, ACLs and the list goes on. The networking side hasn’t changed since it was invented decades ago. It takes weeks to configure the network connections that are needed when you deploy an application.
Organizations have been using server virtualization for years to overcome the limitations of physical server virtualization. When you have to deploy a physical server it could take weeks from the time you first knew you needed it until it was up and running. Now provisioning virtual servers only takes minutes. With virtualized servers we realized agility and resilience and improved physical server utilization. We need the same type of benefits for the network. You can’t let the network get in the way when you need to move fast and gain the advantages of new applications. Organizations are looking for ways to provision the network work quickly.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Choosing the Right Switch is Critical to your Transformation Project
If your organization is going through a data center transformation project you are probably looking at your options for switching infrastructure. As you design your network to support the move to virtualized compute infrastructure and the roll out of new application deployments the choice of switching infrastructure becomes a critical decision. One of the most versatile switching platforms on the market is Juniper’s QFX Series 10GbE/40GbE devices. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with many of our customers about the projects that they are using the QFX switches for and why they chose it over the other options in the market. I’d like to share these examples with you.
Many organizations are undergoing data center transformation projects such as moving to a virtualized data center, deploying large scale Enterprise applications, converging data and SAN networks, and undertaking big data analytics projects. They are looking for a versatile switching platform that they can deploy in any of these scenarios. The QFX switches are high-performance, low-latency, 1RU edge devices that are installed at the top-of-rack in the data center. They include rich Layer 2 and Layer 3 support and standards-based bridging, routing and FCoE capabilities. They can be deployed as standalone switches and then as the deployments increase in scale they can be converted to a QFabric node through a simple software upgrade. This makes them ideal for these types of projects.
Many organizations are undergoing data center transformation projects such as moving to a virtualized data center, deploying large scale Enterprise applications, converging data and SAN networks, and undertaking big data analytics projects. They are looking for a versatile switching platform that they can deploy in any of these scenarios. The QFX switches are high-performance, low-latency, 1RU edge devices that are installed at the top-of-rack in the data center. They include rich Layer 2 and Layer 3 support and standards-based bridging, routing and FCoE capabilities. They can be deployed as standalone switches and then as the deployments increase in scale they can be converted to a QFabric node through a simple software upgrade. This makes them ideal for these types of projects.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Simplifying the Network is the Key to Improving Application Performance
In order ensure application performance and increase productivity across the organization while trying to keep budgets under control Enterprise organizations have been increasingly evaluating and implementing a series of new technologies for the past few years. These technologies hold out the promise of increasing the agility of new application rollouts that deliver game changing services, and meeting the needs of the organization to understand the business and make timely and well informed decisions as well as meeting the changing needs of the organization as they adapt to moves, consolidations and mergers.
The first one of these technologies is server virtualization which is now reaching the middle of the bell curve of the adoption cycle with more than half of organizations at the pervasive or fully virtualized stage according to IDG. The next is cloud computing where investments are up over last year, and the year before, with private cloud now as the preferred model over public cloud. Lowering TCO is a top selling point for both private & public cloud. Cloud solves challenges around business continuity and disaster recovery by providing resources on demand, often in a pay as you go model. It also becomes more popular as organizations begin to see it as an alternative to large capital expenditures for infrastructure.
The first one of these technologies is server virtualization which is now reaching the middle of the bell curve of the adoption cycle with more than half of organizations at the pervasive or fully virtualized stage according to IDG. The next is cloud computing where investments are up over last year, and the year before, with private cloud now as the preferred model over public cloud. Lowering TCO is a top selling point for both private & public cloud. Cloud solves challenges around business continuity and disaster recovery by providing resources on demand, often in a pay as you go model. It also becomes more popular as organizations begin to see it as an alternative to large capital expenditures for infrastructure.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Leveraging Data Center Interconnect For Business Continuity
It’s Time to Reengineer the Wide Area Network
Similar to the data center, organizations are growing increasingly reliant on the wide area network that connects data centers to help them run their businesses. While the WAN is key to data backup plans for maintaining business continuity, many WAN links aren’t up to the task. Standards-based data center interconnect technology could help you keep operating in the face of a disaster, but some reengineering of the WAN might be in order if the plan is going to work.
Business continuity planning is not always a top priority, since many view it as insurance and not a business driver. However, you might be able to combine efforts to help you achieve your goals. For instance, transitioning to a private cloud may require WAN links to be reengineered to provide bandwidth on demand so that virtualized workloads can move between data centers based on user demand and resource utilization. This has the added benefit of supporting the varying bandwidth requirements for backing up data between data centers.
Business Continuity and DCI Strategies
When you use DCI to replicate data between geographically distributed locations you will want to configure your LAN connections so that application and storage traffic can flow between data centers as needed to so that you can maximize application availability and provide data redundancy in the case of an outage. Here are some things to think about.
Similar to the data center, organizations are growing increasingly reliant on the wide area network that connects data centers to help them run their businesses. While the WAN is key to data backup plans for maintaining business continuity, many WAN links aren’t up to the task. Standards-based data center interconnect technology could help you keep operating in the face of a disaster, but some reengineering of the WAN might be in order if the plan is going to work.
Business continuity planning is not always a top priority, since many view it as insurance and not a business driver. However, you might be able to combine efforts to help you achieve your goals. For instance, transitioning to a private cloud may require WAN links to be reengineered to provide bandwidth on demand so that virtualized workloads can move between data centers based on user demand and resource utilization. This has the added benefit of supporting the varying bandwidth requirements for backing up data between data centers.
Business Continuity and DCI Strategies
When you use DCI to replicate data between geographically distributed locations you will want to configure your LAN connections so that application and storage traffic can flow between data centers as needed to so that you can maximize application availability and provide data redundancy in the case of an outage. Here are some things to think about.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Introducing Juniper's Enterprise Data Center Solution
The data center infrastructure is evolving. Application architectures have become more distributed; compute has gone from dedicated hosts to hypervisors, and storage has become converged and shared. The challenge facing organizations is that they need to evolve the network to better serve the business. The network must become simpler and flatter, more automated, more open and integrated with the rest of the environment. A simple and flat network delivers the performance, and management and orchestration integration help the businesses to stay agile. Let’s take a look at how we make this happen.
Challenges in the Data Center Today
The two major challenges in today’s virtualized data center networks are connectivity and operations. Organizations are looking to achieve greater business agility to respond and adapt quickly to business needs. For enterprises that view IT as a strategic business asset, this is characterized by:
Challenges in the Data Center Today
The two major challenges in today’s virtualized data center networks are connectivity and operations. Organizations are looking to achieve greater business agility to respond and adapt quickly to business needs. For enterprises that view IT as a strategic business asset, this is characterized by:
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Inter Data Center Workload Mobility with VMware
Server virtualization has increasing become implemented in the data center because it enables higher utilization of physical servers increasing their value to the organization. By abstracting the server operating system from the server hardware, virtualization allows physical resources to be shared among many virtual machines. The capabilities of cloning, suspending, and migrating live VMs among a cluster of physical hosts enhances resiliency and performance of applications. Advancements in networking technology allow servers within a single cluster to be located across the entire data center, or in another data center some distance away, further enhancing application availability, but making this technology work isn’t simple.
The Case for Live Migration
There are may use cases put forward for live workload migration and they are covered in the document, and were also covered in my previous blog “Making the Case for Long Distance Virtual Machine Mobility.” These use cases include optimizing server resource utilization, optimizing resource consumption at various locations, hybrid cloud where overflow workloads move to another data center, and disaster avoidance were workloads are moved to saftey, as well as a follow the sun model where workloads move according to the time zone of users. Some scenarios for data center migration for live workloads can be accomplished without implementing complicated first-hop-responder and route-optimization techniques. Other scenarios are possible however, they require implementing protocols that share state and fate, thereby increasing the complexity and reducing the reliability of the connected data centers. As a result of these considerations the network is a critical factor.
The Case for Live Migration
There are may use cases put forward for live workload migration and they are covered in the document, and were also covered in my previous blog “Making the Case for Long Distance Virtual Machine Mobility.” These use cases include optimizing server resource utilization, optimizing resource consumption at various locations, hybrid cloud where overflow workloads move to another data center, and disaster avoidance were workloads are moved to saftey, as well as a follow the sun model where workloads move according to the time zone of users. Some scenarios for data center migration for live workloads can be accomplished without implementing complicated first-hop-responder and route-optimization techniques. Other scenarios are possible however, they require implementing protocols that share state and fate, thereby increasing the complexity and reducing the reliability of the connected data centers. As a result of these considerations the network is a critical factor.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Integrating SRX Security Services with QFabric in the Data Center
The data center is a concentrated deployment environment for networking equipment, consisting of thousands of servers that are accessed by tens of thousands of client systems. The need for large-scale access creates a complex set of data flows to business applications that must be protected. Determining firewall deployment configurations and sizing in a data center is a considerable effort and firewall performance is critical to handle the volume of connections per second, and sustained connections. To address these challenges, Juniper Networks created a new class of security products, the SRX Series Services Gateways, to provide the ability to scale in the data center.
Implementation Guide for the SRX in the Data Center
To help customers deploy the SRX Juniper has created an implementation guide that provides various design considerations and implementation guidelines to deploy firewall services in a Juniper QFabric switch-based data center. The guide is intended for architects, network engineers and operators, and those who require technical knowledge regarding integrating the SRX Series with QFabric technology. The guide reviews the technical concepts of the SRX Series Services Gateways related to design and implementation of firewall services. Deployment scenarios are based on a single logical switch design using the Qfabric.
Implementation Guide for the SRX in the Data Center
To help customers deploy the SRX Juniper has created an implementation guide that provides various design considerations and implementation guidelines to deploy firewall services in a Juniper QFabric switch-based data center. The guide is intended for architects, network engineers and operators, and those who require technical knowledge regarding integrating the SRX Series with QFabric technology. The guide reviews the technical concepts of the SRX Series Services Gateways related to design and implementation of firewall services. Deployment scenarios are based on a single logical switch design using the Qfabric.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Have We Hit The Network Breaking Point?
We have all noticed that the business environment is changing at a rapid pace. IT departments, previously seen as cost centers, were tasked with reducing their infrastructure and even justifying their existence, but not anymore. With the rise of just-in-time manufacturing, and long tail customization, all driven by ecommerce that’s increasingly accessed from mobile devices, the old rules are being turned upside down. The IT organization is now tasked with enabling the business to drive innovation.
The Opportunity that Comes with Change
While change comes with opportunity, we know change isn’t always easy. The old ways of building infrastructure and networks are no longer working. Organizations need to adapt to a world where customers use social media and create huge amounts of data that contains business intelligence. All of us have questions about what is happening in the IT space, what the challenges are and what do to about it. That is why Juniper got together with Forrester and did some research to help sort this all out.
It started in July 2012, when Juniper Networks commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate what enterprises need from a network in order to scale for business and meet future needs. Forrester Consulting surveyed 150 IT business decision-makers from enterprises across the United States, and yesterday the results were shared in a webinar. It was a conversation between Forrester Analyst Andre Kindness, Juniper’s CIO Bask Iyer and Mark Settle from BMC Software. I listened in and there was a lot to learn.
The Opportunity that Comes with Change
While change comes with opportunity, we know change isn’t always easy. The old ways of building infrastructure and networks are no longer working. Organizations need to adapt to a world where customers use social media and create huge amounts of data that contains business intelligence. All of us have questions about what is happening in the IT space, what the challenges are and what do to about it. That is why Juniper got together with Forrester and did some research to help sort this all out.
It started in July 2012, when Juniper Networks commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate what enterprises need from a network in order to scale for business and meet future needs. Forrester Consulting surveyed 150 IT business decision-makers from enterprises across the United States, and yesterday the results were shared in a webinar. It was a conversation between Forrester Analyst Andre Kindness, Juniper’s CIO Bask Iyer and Mark Settle from BMC Software. I listened in and there was a lot to learn.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Monetizing the Business Edge with Hosted Private Cloud
The last few years have seen major changes in enterprise networking, with the growth of MPLS virtual private networks (VPNs), and the rise in adoption of cloud services. A growing trend, which blends the two, is Hosted Cloud Services, delivered over MPLS VPNs from the service provider’s data center to the customer’s branch office locations. These services are facilitated and enhanced by Juniper’s combined routing and switching solutions as I discussed in my blog about the Junos Node Unifier.
Network Service Providers’ Opportunity with Cloud Services
NSPs are looking at new areas to boost revenue growth, and cloud computing is one of the key areas they are looking at. Based on research from STL Partner’s Telco 2.0 report, the Hosted Private Cloud market is expected to grow 34% annually to $6.5 billion by 2014. Since they already own the network, as well as the infrastructure around it including the billing and management systems, NSPs are in a good position to monetize the cloud opportunity. While the cloud services market is highly competitive, there is an opportunity for NSPs to differentiate their service offerings by leveraging their enterprise-grade VPN infrastructure to provide Hosted Private Cloud services with enhanced end-to-end security and service-level guarantees.
Public cloud services lack the SLA and QoS guarantee levels that enterprises have grown accustomed to with their VPN networks. Recent power outages associated with major public cloud service providers have impacted many popular sites and highlighted issues associated with reliance on public cloud services. As a result hosted private cloud services are emerging as a cost-effective and robust solution that offers quality and reliability for enterprise applications. Network service providers (NSPs) are embracing cloud services to grow new revenue streams and increase customer retention.
Network Service Providers’ Opportunity with Cloud Services
NSPs are looking at new areas to boost revenue growth, and cloud computing is one of the key areas they are looking at. Based on research from STL Partner’s Telco 2.0 report, the Hosted Private Cloud market is expected to grow 34% annually to $6.5 billion by 2014. Since they already own the network, as well as the infrastructure around it including the billing and management systems, NSPs are in a good position to monetize the cloud opportunity. While the cloud services market is highly competitive, there is an opportunity for NSPs to differentiate their service offerings by leveraging their enterprise-grade VPN infrastructure to provide Hosted Private Cloud services with enhanced end-to-end security and service-level guarantees.
Public cloud services lack the SLA and QoS guarantee levels that enterprises have grown accustomed to with their VPN networks. Recent power outages associated with major public cloud service providers have impacted many popular sites and highlighted issues associated with reliance on public cloud services. As a result hosted private cloud services are emerging as a cost-effective and robust solution that offers quality and reliability for enterprise applications. Network service providers (NSPs) are embracing cloud services to grow new revenue streams and increase customer retention.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Juniper’s Internet Edge Implementation Guide is Here
Juniper has created an implementation guide that will help network designers create a simplified Internet edge solution using Juniper Networks MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, SRX Series Secure Services Gateways, and EX Series Ethernet Switches. This guide details specific design considerations, best practices, and Juniper tools that can be used to build the optimal solution. It concludes with a real-world deployment example that illustrates the solution and recommended configurations in detail.
The Role of the Internet Edge
The Internet edge acts as the enterprise’s gateway to the Internet. It provides connectivity to the Internet for data center, campus, and branch offices, and it connects remote workers, customers, and partners to enterprise resources. It can also be used to provide backup connectivity to the WAN for branch offices, in case the primary connection to the enterprise WAN fails.
Today’ s Internet edge must enable access to a variety of applications such as cloud computing solutions, mission critical applications, and bandwidth hungry applications such as video. The Internet edge must also scale seamlessly to support growing application performance and bandwidth needs, while supporting a rich set of routing and security features. This guide will help you reach this goal.
The Role of the Internet Edge
The Internet edge acts as the enterprise’s gateway to the Internet. It provides connectivity to the Internet for data center, campus, and branch offices, and it connects remote workers, customers, and partners to enterprise resources. It can also be used to provide backup connectivity to the WAN for branch offices, in case the primary connection to the enterprise WAN fails.
Today’ s Internet edge must enable access to a variety of applications such as cloud computing solutions, mission critical applications, and bandwidth hungry applications such as video. The Internet edge must also scale seamlessly to support growing application performance and bandwidth needs, while supporting a rich set of routing and security features. This guide will help you reach this goal.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Meet up with Juniper at VMWorld San Francisco
Are you and your colleagues headed to VMworld next week? Stop by and meet the Juniper team at booth #1517 where will be talking about the security and network architectures needed to move to an agile virtualized datacenter. It's going to be interesting with all of the changes that are happening in network virtualization. I'm looking forward to some interesting keynotes and sessions as well as catching up with friends in the industry.
Juniper has a lot planned for the show including speaking sessions, and a slew of in booth demos, plus we are handing out USB car chargers. I'll be there on Sunday afternoon so stop by and say hello.
You should stop by our booth if you:
- Are virtualizing important apps or are from regulated industries
- Have service oriented application architectures
- Want to use the vMotion technology to move workloads around a datacenter
- Have an old network that you need to upgrade to enable greater performance and workload mobility
- Need to secure mobile devices for VDI or BYOD
- Want to learn how UAC or Secure Access can be run in a VMware environment
Juniper has a lot planned for the show including speaking sessions, and a slew of in booth demos, plus we are handing out USB car chargers. I'll be there on Sunday afternoon so stop by and say hello.
You should stop by our booth if you:
- Are virtualizing important apps or are from regulated industries
- Have service oriented application architectures
- Want to use the vMotion technology to move workloads around a datacenter
- Have an old network that you need to upgrade to enable greater performance and workload mobility
- Need to secure mobile devices for VDI or BYOD
- Want to learn how UAC or Secure Access can be run in a VMware environment
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Why Network Latency Matters for Virtualized Applications
My colleague Russell Skingsley has an interesting take on the effects of latency on virtualized application performance. The purpose of virtualization is to optimize resource utilization. As Russell pointed out it isn’t just an academic conversation. For the cloud hosting provider it’s about revenue maximization. Network latency has a direct impact on virtualized application performance and therefore revenue for the service provider. Your choice of network infrastructure will impact your business, but it can be difficult to see how investing in high performance networking solutions will improve your business. I will try to connect the dots.
Don't Sell it Just Once
It’s a service provider axiom that you don’t want to waste your valuable assets by selling them to a single customer, even at a premium. Take dark fiber for instance, every SP has come to learn that selling a fiber to a single customer will never bring scalable revenues. Making the move to adding DWDM to the service mix allows you to scale up the number of customers and is an improvement over selling dark fiber, but is limited by the number of lamdas that can fit in the spectrum on a single fiber. The scaling is linear. A similar situation exists for shared cloud computing resources.
Don't Sell it Just Once
It’s a service provider axiom that you don’t want to waste your valuable assets by selling them to a single customer, even at a premium. Take dark fiber for instance, every SP has come to learn that selling a fiber to a single customer will never bring scalable revenues. Making the move to adding DWDM to the service mix allows you to scale up the number of customers and is an improvement over selling dark fiber, but is limited by the number of lamdas that can fit in the spectrum on a single fiber. The scaling is linear. A similar situation exists for shared cloud computing resources.
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