Juniper Networks, a company in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced a new cloud-hosted campus fabric workflow that facilitates the successful deployment of enterprise networks to expedite time-to-service and minimize troubleshooting costs. In addition, the new Juniper Networks EX4400-24X distribution switch delivers the power of Mist AI™ and the cloud to enterprise campus distribution deployments and low-density data centre top-of-rack environments. These additions to Juniper’s award-winning wired switching portfolio bring even more scale, performance and security to the AI-driven enterprise.
Sudheer Matta, Group VP Product, AI-driven Enterprise at Juniper said “Traditional on-premises solutions for micro-segmentation are extremely complex to deploy and manage, making it difficult to achieve their full promise of security and flexibility.”
Matta added “The latest addition to our AI-driven enterprise solutions solves this, combining the power of Mist AI and the simplicity of cloud with standards-based EVPN/VXLAN to create a secure, open and seamless solution for campus fabrics with additional micro-segmentation capabilities.”
The configuration and testing of challenging L2/L3 switching fabrics, like EVPN/VXLAN, present a task to campus IT departments. As a result, they either completely avoid these advantageous designs or waste time and resources troubleshooting issues. Mist AI and the cloud are used in Juniper’s novel wired access workflow to address these issues.
Alex Israel, Infrastructure Architect at University of Plymouth said “We anticipate that Juniper’s campus fabric workflow will help us deliver a modern campus network and achieve a level of network automation and self-healing – for both wired and wireless- by utilizing machine learning and AI to assist in diagnosing network-related errors. This will improve user experiences, primarily for students in our managed Halls of Residence but also for IoT style devices on campus, as well as improve network security options, enabling micro-segmentation using VXLAN.”
Its unique features include:
• Customers can now deploy common standards-based campus fabrics, such as EVPN multihoming, EVPN core/distribution and IP Clos, with an easy three-step process in which they select their desired topology, assign devices/roles and push configurations.
• Mist AI brings proactive issue identification and remediation to enable successful fabric deployment and optimized ongoing wired operations. For example, with Juniper’s Wired Assurance subscription, customers and partners can easily identify and correct a wide array of switching problems, such as missing VLANs, port flaps and bad cables.
• With the Juniper solution, it is easy to set up automated group-based policies (GBP) and enable micro-segmentation for improved security of applications and IoT devices. This is a perfect complement to SecIntel threat intelligence for EX, which protects against internal application and device compromise.
• The Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA) utilizes Natural Language Understanding to provide simple answers to complex problems, proactively identifying key actions. By leveraging a common Mist AI engine across the whole Juniper campus/branch portfolio, the wired access, wireless access and SD-WAN domains all work together for incredible client-to-cloud insight and optimization.
By utilizing Mist AI-powered Juniper campus switching solution, clients and collaborators can enjoy the advantages of a smooth, L2/L3 fabric that complies with standards, without facing the difficulties of deploying and managing such systems that have been problematic in the past.
Enterprises of all sizes are faced with a rapidly increasing number of users, devices and applications that need to access the network simultaneously, quickly and securely. Building networks that can withstand the demands of both the present and the future require a client-to-cloud strategy that encompasses both software and hardware.
The EX4400-24X, the newest addition to the EX Series portfolio switching in the campus and branch, is a 10-gigabit distribution or small core device that was born in the cloud and is fully compatible with Juniper’s cutting-edge campus fabric technology. It was created to complement the entire EX4400 line of switches. The EX4400-24X is optimised for simplicity and scalability with native cloud-based operations, just like other EX4400 models, while allowing the superior user and IT experiences with Juniper’s AIOps, which are the best in the business.
The switches are designed to work efficiently with Mist AI, enabling IT teams to shorten deployment periods by utilizing zero-touch provisioning and automated workflows. With Mist AI, swift issue identification is possible through complete event correlation across the network, proactive anomaly detection, and self-driven network operations.
In addition, all EX4400 models include important security capabilities such as MACsec AES256 and standards-based micro-segmentation using group-based policies (GBP) for the growing needs of IoT devices. They also provide real-time monitoring of flows to protect against ongoing security threats.
The EX4400-24X specifically has a compact footprint with 24 x 10GbE ports, various uplink options (100 GbE, 25 GbE and 10 GbE) and support for up to 10 members in a virtual chassis, making it ideal for enterprise campus distribution deployments and low-density data centre top-of-rack environments.
Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group said “Organizations are actively reimagining their campus environments to provide enhanced security and user experiences. The network will play a significant role delivering both. However, the combination of legacy and modern network architectures creates challenges for operations teams managing and troubleshooting these environments. Fortunately, there are solutions to address many of these issues, such as the Juniper Mist Wired Assurance service, which leverages the newly released campus fabric workflow. This allows any size organization to design, deploy and operate campus switching using group-based policy (GBP) micro-segmentation quickly and easily. Plus, Juniper’s new cloud-native EX4400-24X distribution switch enables greater operational agility, scale and granular access control security policies. When combined, the Juniper solution can deliver greater operational efficiencies, improved user experiences and enhanced security for the campus.”
As infrastructure evolves, teams need to evolve with it. The adoption of cloud technologies has forced IT teams to adopt new technologies quickly, leaving organizations vulnerable to mistakes.
The Juniper Mist Campus Deployment Service and Juniper Mist Wired Assurance Deployment Service are specially made to give customers access to Juniper experts, automation tools, and best-practice design methodologies to help streamline processes and lighten the load on IT teams. The service lowers risk and shortens downtime while making installations of EX Series Ethernet switches and switches from other vendors simpler and faster. With the help of these Juniper services, customers can create sprawling campuses for distributed enterprises, streamline IT operations, lower mean time to repair (MTTR), and offer a new breed of experience-first networks with quicker onboarding, configuration, and management.
Moreover, Juniper Support Insights enables customers to improve their experience and management capabilities throughout the lifecycle. This service utilizes AI to provide support across the Juniper portfolio, granting comprehensive oversight of the operational state of all Juniper devices, including the EX4400 switches, within an organization. Offered through Juniper Care, the service securely links Juniper devices to the cloud and provides practical intelligence via uncomplicated dashboards, which can enhance an organization’s network optimization efforts.
These announcements extend Juniper’s goal to provide experience-first networking to customers of all sizes and across industries – a mission resonating with the networking community. Juniper Networks was recently named a Leader by Gartner, Inc. in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure for the third year in a row. In this new report, published in December of 2022, Juniper was positioned, for the second year straight, furthest in “Completeness of Vision,” which evaluates vendors’ ability to convincingly articulate current and future market strategy, innovation and product strategy. In addition, Juniper was again positioned highest in “Ability to Execute,” which evaluates vendors on their product/service, market responsiveness and customer experience.
Earlier in the year, Juniper also received the 2022 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice distinction in Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure, which recognizes vendors and products rated by end users. Juniper has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on 469 reviews as of December 23, 2022.
