Dealing with Change in the Data Center - Getting to Network as a Service

We are continuing on a long transition from the physical data center to the virtual data center. Resources that were wholly physical are being virtualized. Resources that were static are now dynamic. This trend started with server virtualization and has expanded to network virtualization. With the move to virtualization you have made progress in gaining better utilization your physical resources. You are using fewer physical servers but they are larger and denser. There are more virtual machines and more network ports to connect them. This has created an exponential growth in the number of interactions that you must make on the network to get everything connected and communicating. The challenge is in the time it takes to get work done. Let’s look at some tools that Juniper provides to make your life easier.

Zero Touch Provisioning
Your first step is to get the equipment up and running. Juniper provides a zero touch provisioning tool that lets you do this using standard configurations for the switches and a DHCP server to assign an IP address and things like that. It’s used by the networking team. It handles routine tasks that are typically done once. With ZTP highly repetitive routing tasks that took hours can be reduced to minutes.

Juniper’s Vision for SDN Enables Network Innovation

The importance of the network continues to grow and innovation in the network needs to support new businesses models, and drive social and economic change. SDN will help address challenges currently faced by the network as it evolves to support business applications. It is worthwhile to step back and determine what the big-picture problem is to be solved. SDN is about adding value and solving a problem that has not been solved. It is about helping network operators to combine best-of-breed networking equipment with SDN control to facilitate cost effective networks that provide new business opportunities is key to Juniper’s strategy. I’d like to elaborate on a few key points.

Juniper’s Vision For The New Network And Software-Defined Networking Are Aligned
I’ve talked in previous blogs about Juniper’s New Network Platform Architecture. Juniper is delivering the New Network to increase the rate of innovation, streamline network operating costs through automation, and reduce overall capital expenses. Legacy networks have grown large and complex. This has stifled innovation and made networks costly to build and maintain. Both the New Network and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) are about removing complexity, treating the network itself as a platform, and shifting the emphasis from maintenance to innovation.

SDN provides an abstracted, logical view of the network with externalized software-based control and reduced control points for better network control and simplified network operations. Juniper’s vision for SDN includes bi-directional interaction between the network and applications and a real-time feedback loop to ensure an optimal outcome for all elements and a predictable experience for users. This capability is transparent allowing customers to augment their existing network infrastructures to be SDN-enabled.