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Brochure: The Cloud-Ready Data Center Network

Apply the lessons of cloud computing to vastly improve economics and experience

CLOUD-READY DATA CENTER SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Cloud computing represents a new way to deliver and use services on a shared IT infrastructure. Previously, applications and hardware were linked, and applications were resident on specifically designated hardware for compute and storage. With cloud computing, the functionality of these same software and hardware products is delivered in a more scalable fashion as services over a network. IT groups can apply the lessons of the cloud to their own IT departments, whether or not they are deploying clouds to achieve optimal results. However, in the highly connected world of virtualized applications and infrastructures, a close examination of the network is required, because simplified networks are the foundation of cloud-ready data centers.

THE JUNIPER NETWORKS SOLUTION FOR CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing can vastly improve the performance, scale, agility, and security of applications in any data center. This reduces IT costs while improving the user experience. IT services are delivered by infrastructures that are centrally managed and shared through consolidation and virtualization. Any of the standard data center elements, such as servers, appliances, storage, and other networking devices, can be contained within a cloud-like architecture. By abstracting the logical from the physical, these elements can be arranged in resource pools that are shared securely across multiple applications, users, departments, suppliers, and customers.

The resources in these pools are dynamically allocated to accommodate the changing capacity requirements of different applications and improve asset utilization levels. Consequently, cloud infrastructures are known to simplify management, reduce operating and ownership costs, and allow services to be provisioned with unprecedented speed. Juniper Networks® has dedicated itself to building simplified, scalable, agile, and secure networks with these design objectives for the cloud-ready data center.

SUCCESS IN BUILDING A CLOUD-READY DATA CENTER NETWORK INVOLVES THREE STEPS: (1) SIMPLIFY, (2) SHARE, (3) SECURE – AND AUTOMATE AT EACH STEP

Getting Ready

Success in building a cloud-ready data center network requires three steps: (1) simplify, (2) share, (3) secure, and automate at each step. Whether you are running your internal IT infrastructure to be cloud-like or plan to connect with public cloud services, designing a cloud-ready data center network gives you significant advantages that can help you lower costs, increase efficiency, and keep your data center agile enough to accommodate any changes in your business or your technology infrastructure.

Key Components

Juniper recommends three steps to make your network infrastructure cloud ready, reducing the cost and complexity of networking while improving application and business performance:

Simplify the architecture—Consolidate siloed systems and collapse inefficient tiers using innovative fabric technology and a single network operating system. This results in fewer devices, a smaller operational footprint, reduced complexity, and easier management from a “single pane of glass.”
Share the resources—Segment the network into simple, logical, and scalable partitions for your various applications and services with privacy, flexibility, high performance, and quality of service (QoS) as primary goals. This sharing enables agility for multiple users, applications, and services.
Secure the data flows—Integrated and dynamic security services resident in the network can provide benefits to users and applications sharing the infrastructure. Comprehensive protection secures data flows between external, internal, and inter-data center endpoints. Implement centralized orchestration and enforcement of dynamic, application- and identity-aware policies.
Automate network operations at each step—An open, extensible software platform reduces operational costs and complexity, enables rapid scaling, minimizes operator errors, and increases reliability through a single network operating system. A powerful network application platform with innovative applications enables network operators to leverage Juniper or third-party applications for simplifying operations and scaling application infrastructure to improve operational efficiency.

SIMPLIFY

The network design that used to work for the business might not be capable of supporting new demands on IT infrastructure and, most importantly, new business requirements. Networks built on fragmented and oversubscribed tree structures have problems with scaling and consistent performance. Design and management complexity and costs increase exponentially as more devices are added.

3-2-1 Data Center Network Architecture

Juniper simplifies the data center network and eliminates layers of cost and complexity with a “3-2-1 Data Center Network Architecture.” Using fabric technologies such as Virtual Chassis technology, Juniper helps flatten data center networks, reducing them from three layers to two or even one layer. In the future, Juniper’s Project Stratus will manage a 10GbE network at scale, as a single logical switch.

Edge Service Consolidation and Management

At the data center’s edge where connections to other data centers and networks occur over the WAN, the Internet, or a partner’s network, the number of deployed devices can be consolidated into fewer, more agile and scalable devices with Juniper solutions. This consolidation simplifies management and control of the connections and lowers operational costs. The Juniper Networks M Series Multiservice Edge Routers and MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers are powerful, reliable, and the industry’s most scalable solutions for the intelligent edge and inter-data center mobility.

Service Consolidation

Network-based security services—intrusion detection and prevention, encryption, and application monitoring—can be consolidated into highly scalable dynamic security platforms to reduce security “sprawl.” The Juniper Networks SRX Series Services Gateways can condense previously siloed security platforms by a ratio of 5:1. The SRX Series enables rapid provisioning and simplified operation of multiple security controls for dynamic scaling of security services across physical and logical platforms.

Legacy Network

Two Tier Network Virtual Chassis Technology

Tier Network Fabric Network

Unified Management

By using Juniper Networks Junos® operating system as the single OS across routing, switching, and security platforms, as well as Junos Space network orchestration applications, Juniper is able to significantly simplify configuration and problem management for multiple applications and user groups. These gains are crucial to maintaining service levels and flexibility in IT infrastructure while following the constant business imperative of doing more with less.

Economic and agility imperatives of the cloud-ready data center require network resources to be allocated, expanded, and reallocated efficiently at scale. Juniper’s uniquely architected platforms deliver the agility and scaling required by virtualizing network configurations, segmenting services into logical domains, and using industry-leading hardware designs to scale without complexity. With a large pool of resources to draw on, customers can efficiently partition those resources to meet service requirements, remain flexible, and ensure operational performance, security and control.

Resource Allocation

Juniper’s recommended approach to sharing the network revolves around aligning capacities, bandwidth, priorities, and availability goals with application requirements using technologies based on standards and simplified policies.

Virtual Chassis technology allows multiple devices to be interconnected and behave as a single device. In each of Juniper’s routing and switching lines, customers have unmatched scale and agility in processing access control lists that forward traffic according to previously established rules for designated types, rates, and packet sizes. Juniper security services and policies nest VLANs within logical zones for security segmentation. With Juniper’s carrier-grade, scalable MPLS and virtual private LAN service (VPLS) technologies, VPNs can be used to extend zones, while VLANs can be stretched across data centers or pods for more flexible shared links to the cloud (Figure 4).

Supporting Server Virtualization

There are a number of ways to address the management issues raised by the explosion of virtualized servers and virtual machines in today’s data centers. Most require coordination between physical and virtual resources, so that delivery of services is appropriately synchronized. The simplest and most elegant approach, endorsed by Juniper, is an emerging IEEE standard called Virtual Ethernet Port Adaptor (VEPA), which specifies that switching between virtual machines be handled by the external physical switch connected to the server. Once approved, the VEPA standard will be supported on all shipping and next-generation Juniper Networks switches through a simple software upgrade.

Converged Networks

I/O and network convergence bring together the various disparate networks within the data center and, for many of our customers, that primarily means bringing together the Ethernet and the Fibre Channel Storage Area Network using protocols such as Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). As these standards are finalized, they will be supported on Juniper’s 10GbE switching platforms.

SECURE

Security administrators must protect client-to-server traffic as well as traffic between physical and virtual servers, applications, and systems in other data centers. Security solutions need to be flexible to adapt to the changes in traffic volumes and data flows that occur because of virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud services. The increasing user access and the rising sophistication of security threats in a cloud-ready data center require expanded protection. Appropriate policies affect availability of business critical applications and operations.

To address these challenges, security services must be consolidated and pooled in a coordinated fashion to complement the simplification and sharing of the network. This approach enhances the flexibility and efficiency of the entire solution.

Scalable Network Virtualization Technologies

Juniper Networks has developed high-performance, cloud-enabled dynamic security services to meet today’s security and performance requirements while accommodating future on-demand growth. Services such as application monitoring, stateful firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and VPNs are consolidated on an expandable platform that flexibly and dynamically assigns resources as needed. Security services must be application- and identity-aware, while providing secure access for the mobile workforce to data center applications. Juniper provides best practices implementation guides to minimize risk and speed time to implementation when configuring security solutions for cloud-ready data centers.

AUTOMATE

Juniper Networks’ open, extensible network automation software makes it easier to manage and administer the data center by simplifying repetitive and complex tasks, defining and implementing policies within the network, and orchestrating implementation across multiple systems using network-based software. This greatly reduces operational expenses by reducing configuration errors, measurably improving reliability, and freeing up labor resources to innovate rather than administer.

The Junos Space network application platform was designed to provide end-to-end visibility and control of the network to enable network resources to be orchestrated in response to business needs. Operators can significantly simplify the network life cycle, including configuration, provisioning and troubleshooting with an open, automation platform.

Junos Space includes a core set of collaborative applications from Juniper and third parties that help managers improve operational efficiencies, rapidly scale their infrastructure, and increase the reliability and agility of their network. With Junos Space’s easy-to-use Web 2.0 user interface, operators can complete their tasks easily, quickly and accurately. Junos Space provides applications for network infrastructure and automation that include:

Junos Space Ethernet Design—helps deploy an enterprise network just as easily as it is to deploy a single switch
Junos Space Network Activate—facilitates fast and easy setup of VPLS services and allows for full lifecycle management of MPLS services
Junos Space Route Insight—enables rapid planning, troubleshooting, and change simulation for L3 services

Junos Space Security Design

Junos Space Service Insight—delivers proactive, actionable network insight to manage risk and improve application reliability
Junos Space Service Now—automates diagnostics to speed problem resolution
Junos Space Virtual Control—provides automated orchestration between the physical and virtual networks for server virtualization deployments

SUMMARY

Improve the Economics and Experience of Information Technology to Deliver Greater Business Value

Many organizations can benefit from cloud-ready data center networks, whether building a cloud-like infrastructure for internal purposes, connecting to public cloud services, or preparing to connect to public cloud services in the future. Juniper Networks, as a partner with demonstrable experience, can help organizations reduce complexity and overall costs in IT while accelerating delivery of IT services to users in a secure, simplified network.

Open Automation Platform

JUNIPER SOLUTION COMPONENTS

Switching

EX Series Ethernet Switches: Deliver unmatched scale and performance for L2 and L3 data center networks. The high-performance Juniper Networks EX4200 Ethernet Switch, EX4500 Ethernet Switch, and EX8200 line of Ethernet EX series switches support data center and cloud computing environments. Virtual Chassis technology enables multiple interconnected switches to operate as a single fabric, reducing management overhead.

Routing

MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers: A family of high-performance Ethernet services routers with powerful switching and security features, which delivers the most advanced routing features as well as the ability to scale functionality without compromising performance. Advanced routing features include MPLS network virtualization, low latency multicast, advanced QoS, carrier-class reliability, and security. MX Series routers are designed for future support of Juniper’s unique Virtual Chassis technology, which will enable multiple interconnected MX Series routers to operate as a single device to simplify manageability.

M Series Multiservice Edge Routers: Deliver the most advanced routing features with a large array of WAN interface options to connect the cloud-ready data center to the WAN.

Security

SRX Series Services Gateways: Combine routing, switching, application services, and user- and application-aware security within a modular, expandable chassis to deliver unprecedented performance and flexibility while reducing management overhead. Unified Access Control with Junos Pulse: Provides powerful identity- and role-based access control that increases agility in service deployment and overall quality of experience. UAC can be deployed within a data center or across an extended enterprise to protect networks and applications.

SA Series SSL VPN Appliances with Junos Pulse: Provide scalable, simplified, and secure access for remote and mobile employees, customers, and partners from multiple remote networks and platforms (SSL VPN) to data center resources.

Operating System

Junos OS: Integrates routing, switching, and security services, and offers the power of one operating system to reduce complexity, achieve operational excellence, and deliver dynamic services with lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Network Application Platform

Junos Space is an open, extensible network application platform for developing and deploying applications that simplify operations, scale automation tasks, and maximize operational accuracy. The platform includes a scalable runtime environment with multitenant, hot-pluggable network application support, a complete rapid network application development framework, and an easy Web 2.0 user interface. Junos Space includes a plug-and-play environment for Juniper developed and third-party applications and devices to be added to the platform without system restart, and to allow in-service device upgrades.

Network Client

Junos Pulse allows the data center to become identity aware while providing secure access for the mobile workforce to data center applications. This dynamic, standards-based multiservice network client delivers integrated connectivity, access, application acceleration, and security anytime/anywhere, while drastically simplifying the user experience.

Technical Services

Juniper Care is a family of support services built on the service automation features of Junos Space Service Now and Junos Space Service Insight application. Juniper Care improves business application reliability by ensuring the network is performing optimally. Time-consuming and complex support-management activities are automated, improving up-time and time-to-resolution (TTR) with service automation capability. Juniper Care relies on the Junos Space platform delivered by Service Now for reactive event management, and the Junos Space Service Insight application for adaptive and proactive management. Juniper Care also delivers direct and personalized assistance including design, maintenance, and support escalation.

Key Business Partnerships

Partnerships with market leaders and innovators are critical to enable proven and cutting edge solutions. Juniper has key alliances in place today with IBM and Dell, both of whom offer Junos OS-based routing, switching, and security solutions. Both companies also offer simplified data center architectures based on the building blocks of Juniper’s cloud-ready data center network. Partnerships with virtualization leaders like VMware enable simplified automation. Enhanced security capabilities are available through partnerships with companies such as FireEye and Altor Networks. Together with our alliance partners, Juniper offers solutions that can be deployed with confidence.