New Apstra product enhancements make it easier than ever to experience the benefits of a Juniper experience-first data center
It’s been a little over a year since Juniper Networks took the bold step of acquiring Apstra, the creator of the only vendor-agnostic intent-based networking
software for data center operations. In that time, much has happened
both externally and internally at Juniper, all of which has enabled the
company’s data center business to continue its growth. Many factors
contributed to this tremendous success, including continued investment
in the Juniper Apstra product, development of Apstra partners and
significant Apstra customer momentum across both the enterprise and
service provider segments.
Today, we’re excited to announce the latest series of Apstra product
enhancements that will enable Juniper to continue its strong data center
momentum into 2022 and beyond. Not only have we expanded all the
benefits of our intent-based networking solution to more data center
environments, but it’s even easier to deploy and operate with more
robust security capabilities.
To the Edge and Beyond
No one could have predicted the surge in workload distribution that a
pandemic would generate – including data volume and demand for faster,
more reliable service. To support increasing business digitization and
reduce latency, many organizations have turned to edge computing to
bring data processing closer to the end user.
Now, in addition to using Apstra in centralized or hyperscale data
centers, customers can use our powerful software in edge locations – or
at any remote site that doesn’t require the full scale of a multistage
switching network. With Apstra, networking teams can centrally design,
deploy and operate a network consisting of an EVPN-VXLAN overlay with an
IP fabric underlay in a configuration made up of only two leaf
switches. Additionally, teams can scale and add access switches to the
fabric whenever needed. Apstra will automatically register the new
devices and apply the pre-validated configurations.
Zero Trust for a More Secure Data Center
Apstra’s single source of truth is a key foundation for Zero Trust
security, enabling network operators and security experts to view the
exact state of the network, its configuration and the intended outcome.
Apstra’s enhanced policy assurance introduces new segmentation
capabilities. By allowing organizations to apply all their security
policies from a single point and to specify enforcement at the most
granular level, Apstra ensures that the network is continuously
compliant, consistent and reliable.
Apstra also provides:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to limit who can see which data
- Continuous validation against intent to identify configuration drift in real time
- Policy assurance to confirm that security policies are being enforced as intended
- Live audits to track the origin of changes
Improvements in RBAC, audit and security policy granularity have all
been made to meet the requirements of customers using Apstra in
multi-tenant environments.
Hassle-Free Deployments and Migrations
With IT requirements evolving at an unprecedented rate, constant data
center deployments and migrations are inevitable. In addition, the
number of data centers in use frequently changes, either increasing due
to natural IT growth or acquisitions, or decreasing when older data
centers are decommissioned or businesses divest themselves of certain IT
requirements or applications. These deployments and migrations can be
challenging, expensive and resource intensive. But they don’t have to
be.
Juniper’s new Apstra Deployment and Migration
services leverage Apstra’s intent-based networking architecture and
in-house tools to help organizations significantly reduce the time, cost
and risk associated with deployments. Our experts perform real-time
preconditioned validations based on the exact blueprint, network models
and operating systems. This enables customers to migrate to the latest
architectures and automate everyday operations with minimal downtime and
an unprecedented level of assurance, while also reducing the CapEx and
OpEx associated with physical and virtual testing during deployment.
Customers can also take advantage of best-practice design methodologies
and in-house automation tools to accelerate deployments for increased
business agility.
New Data Center Learning
Both experienced and new data center networkers will have the ability
to advance their careers with Juniper’s revised curriculum that
includes new and updated training and certifications.
- Introduction to Juniper Data Center Networking:
This foundational course provides introductory instruction on data
center switching using Juniper products and covers the baseline
knowledge necessary to understand a data center that’s built upon an IP
fabric with an EVPN/VXLAN overlay. This is the recommended preparation
for the new Juniper Networks Certified Associate, Data Center (JNCIA-DC)
certification, which launches in May 2022.
- Data Center Automation using Juniper Apstra:
This expanded course provides the necessary knowledge required to
manage data center networks with Apstra and now covers how to add a
spine, leaf and generic system to a running blueprint (IP fabric),
VMware integration and data center interconnect. It’s recommended as
preparation for the new Juniper Networks Certified Specialist, Data
Center (JNCIS-DC) certification, also launching in May 2022.
- Data Center Fabric with EVPN and VXLAN:
This recently updated course now includes coverage of enhanced loop
protection, MAC-VRF, ERB, collapsed fabric configuration, super spine
configuration, EVPN multicast-assisted replication, filter-based
forwarding in the data center and seamless EVPN-VXL. This course is
recommended training for the updated Juniper Networks Certified Professional, Data Center (JNCIP-DC)
A Year of Integration, Innovation and Achievements
Now that we’ve described the latest enhancements, let’s look back at
how far Juniper has come with Apstra since the acquisition last year.
Apstra was integrated with more Juniper products. It
takes time to fully integrate a newly acquired company, but Juniper hit
the ground running this past year! We’ve added Apstra support for more
Juniper switches and routers, as well as for all current versions of our
Junos® operating system, including Junos Evolved in spine, super-spine and non-EVPN-VXLAN leafs.
Apstra adoption grew by leaps and bounds. Since the
acquisition, Apstra logos have increased over 400 percent.
Additionally, pre-acquisition customers renewed their Apstra licenses.
For example, one Fortune 5 customer not only renewed, but also deployed
Apstra to a second data center and introduced Apstra to a major managed
services provider.
- Juniper expanded Apstra’s multivendor support. Apstra
is the only intent-based networking software that eliminates vendor
lock-in, and Juniper proved that it was committed to keeping this unique
feature. For example, in last year’s Apstra 4.0 release, we provided
validated qualification for Cisco Systems, Arista Networks, Dell
Technologies and added VMware NSX-T 3.0 and Enterprise SONiC
integrations. Although we believe that customers benefit most by
combining Apstra with our own QFX Series switches
and other proprietary hardware and software, our primary goal is to
give customers the tools they need to reduce operational complexity and
assure reliability – regardless of which vendor environment they have.
