SD-WAN vendors finally realize how confusing this crowded market is. Juniper Networks announced today a virtual tour for its Contrail SDWAN platform. This is to help customers make informed purchases.
Customers can take a virtual tour to test Juniper’s SDWAN offering before committing. This platform will enable users to test a live SDWAN deployment made up of Juniper hubs and spoke devices from around the globe, transmitting over a hybrid WAN.
Enterprises can take the tour to test out new features, inspect the performance of service-level agreements, link switch-over events, and initiate security events. Summary reports can be generated and viewed by users.
Juniper’s virtual tour includes features that guide potential customers through the interface.
Interactive demos are featured in the tour that shows how to deploy cloud-managed services on Juniper’s SRX and vSRX SD-WAN gateways. However, users will need to sign up for a trial period of Juniper Contrail SD-WAN platform.
MNJ Technologies, a managed SD-WAN service provider, implemented a similar strategy early in 2019. Instead of a virtual tour on one SD-WAN platform, MNJ Technologies created a demo laboratory where customers could test seven of the top products.
Today’s announcement marked a close to a busy year at the networking giant.
Juniper’s SD-WAN service was launched in April via a cloud-managed edition. This is to simplify adoption and operations.
Mist Systems’ $405 million acquisition was leveraged by the launch.
Prior to the launch, Juniper peddled two varieties of its SD-WAN running on its Juno operating system: one built around its secure, SRX router and next-generation firewall; and the other based on NFX, the company’s Universal Customer Premises Equipment (uCPE), which can run virtual network functions over it.
Contrail’s move to the cloud included support for passive redundant hybrid links, internet breakdown at the edge CPE or central WAN hubs, as well as topologies like a hub and spoke, partial mesh, and dynamic full mesh.
Juniper also entered the SD-branch marketplace in December 2019, extending its reach to its SDWAN management console to include its SDLAN service.
Juniper has unveiled three new SD branch appliances that are targeted at enterprises to support this goal.
Users can now configure Juniper’s EX Series switches for managed LAN fabrics and set up LAN virtualization policies and security policies in a similar manner to how they manage their SD-WAN environment.
This portal has been enhanced to allow you to display Mist wireless access points, launch Mist cloud products to manage and provision enterprise WLAN deployments, and also launch Mist cloud.
Juniper’s busy year was ended by the departure of Chief Technology Officer Bikash Kley. Raj Yavatkar will replace him in early 2020.
After leaving Google, Koley joined Juniper as a Juniper employee in 2017. Many saw Koley as a coup for Juniper, which was at that time struggling to sell its technology strategy and declining router and security revenue revenues.
During his tenure at Juniper, Koley’s chief strategy was to “make the network simple” by leveraging automation and orchestration across multi-cloud environments.
Yavatkar currently serves as an IEEE Fellow, leading the development of cloud networking products and infrastructure for network virtualization. Yavatkar, like Koley, worked for Google before joining Juniper. Prior to that, he was a leader at VMware and Intel.
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Matt Ogden is MNJ’s Chief Operating Officer. Matt is widely recognized as the voice of the customer. He was, in fact, a customer of MNJ for 14 years. MNJ customers trust Matt for his command of IT and Digital Transformation within the context of optimized business outcomes.
Matt bridges the gap between legacy technology environments and practical future state success. He has a rare ability to meet the customer where they are and build high integrity, cost effective plans to help technology teams function better. He has even been called a CTO/CIO whisperer. His command of best practices comes from his 14+ years of experience as a leader within the Fortune 19 company – Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
Matt is a Management Information Systems (MIS) graduate from Kent State University. Matt is all about family and invests his free time into them while enjoying coaching and Disney World adventures. Matt is also an avid Cleveland Browns fan.