Network gear maker Juniper Networks says its new MetaFabric cloud data centre architecture will help organizations simplify and speed up deployment of applications across dispersed data centre locations.
Many existing network infrastructures are not able to keep pace with new and emerging data centre technologies and prevent businesses from reaping the full business potential of cloud, mobile and big data technologies, according to Dritman Dasgupta, senior director of product marketing for Juniper.
“In many instances networks are getting in the way of companies that want to leverage these new technologies,” he said. “It takes only 30 seconds to find a new virtual machine, but it can take weeks and even months for the network to provision the apps that that VM will need.”
Dasgupta said a recent Gartner Research report found that traditional network design practices do not adequately support modern users.
For instance, he said, many companies still need to configure each device and application individually in their data centres.
Because of disaster recovery and business continuity policies, most companies locate their data centres far from each other. Unfortunately, this also results in slower communications between data centres.
“We live in an agile ecosystem, but ironically our networks do not because they still exist in a device-centric universe,” he said. “New network architects need to shift their thinking from technology to users and business processes.”
To solve these problem, Dasgupta said, Juniper has organized a portofolio of switching, routing, orchestration, software-defined networking (SDN) and security solutions as well as technology partnerships, to come up with the MetaFabric architecture.
MetaFabric helps ensure investment protection by allowing organizations to adapt to the changing needs of the data center, without the need to rip and replace existing infrastructures, according to Juniper. Additionally, customers can optimally deploy, utilize and manage a unified pool of network resources across multiple data centers, providing greater levels of business agility, cost efficiencies and improving the end user application experience.
MetaFabric encompasses new and existing switching, routing, software defined networking (SDN) and security offerings, including Juniper’s full suite of security solutions.
New products announced today include:
- QFX5100 family of 10G and 40G access switches
- Unique new WAN and SDN capabilities on MX Series Routers. Juniper’s MX Series routers have added support for Ethernet VPN (EVPN), which maximizes performance and improves the user experience by creating the most efficient forwarding paths across the WAN
- Highly adaptable SDN solutions for data center optimization MetaFabric is the ideal networking foundation for the emerging ecosystem of SDN controllers.
Juniper Networks Contrail will support VMware ESXi, providing customers with an even broader array of choices. In addition, MetaFabric allows customers to connect Juniper systems directly to OpenStack and CloudStack orchestration platforms.