Juniper partners with VMware

Increasingly, enterprises are looking to SDN and network virtualisation as a means of easily deploying, managing, and orchestrating public and private cloud networks - tasks that have grown more complex due to the combination of physical and virtual assets. The partnership between Juniper Networks and VMware represents a shared commitment to delivering simplified, flexible solutions that enable customers to more easily migrate to SDN as their business needs evolve.

VMware NSX Integration: Juniper Networks is working closely with VMware to develop a broad range of networking solutions that will deliver VMware NSX Layer 2 Gateway functionality to programmatically enable connectivity between virtual and physical network environments. VMware NSX L2 Gateway Services will be offered on Juniper Networks® EX Series and QFX Series core, aggregation and access switching platforms, and MX Series edge routers, providing customers with unparalleled levels of IT flexibility through support for nearly any virtualised data center deployment scenario. VMware NSX L2 Gateway Services are expected to be generally available in mid-2014.

Hardware-accelerated VXLAN Routing: To support multi-tenancy or business continuity/disaster recovery initiatives, enterprises need to route network traffic between virtual networks either within a single - or across multiple - data centers. New VXLAN routing capabilities on Juniper Networks MX Series and EX9200 Series Switches will specifically address these needs. These capabilities are expected to be available in mid-2014.

Advanced Data Center Automation: To help enterprise customers streamline data center operations across physical and virtual environments, Juniper Networks offers a range of network automation solutions designed to simplify the arduous and time-consuming tasks of network provisioning, day-to-day management and orchestration of network resources. For VMware environments, Juniper Networks offers comprehensive management and advanced analytics as well as troubleshooting capabilities for both physical and virtual infrastructures via its Junos® Space Network Director and will provide integrated management capabilities through a plug-in for VMware vCenter™ Server.

Virtual Security Capabilities: Juniper Networks is also working with VMware to extend development of its leading virtual security product portfolio to ensure future integration with VMware NSX and new security and networking application programming interfaces (APIs). Juniper’s wide range of virtual security solutions for VMware environments provides customers with the ability to implement a comprehensive network security solution to protect virtual data center assets.

Validated Blueprint for the Virtualised Data Center: Juniper Networks is developing a validated reference architecture that provides customers with a proven methodology for architecting and building out a simplified, integrated network framework to support virtualised data centers. This blueprint, which is expected to be available later this year, will outline technology requirements, best practices and recommended approaches for successfully building a network foundation to support a number of advanced capabilities such as predictable application behavior, streamlined workflow-based configuration and quality of service across physical and virtual networks with ease.