Juniper Networks today announced the latest version of its intent-based networking and automation platform Apstra.

Apstra 4.2 adds several new capabilities focused on providing expanded visibility into application performance, as well as tighter integration with multicloud infrastructure tools. Juniper acquired Apstra back in 2020 and has been steadily expanding the platform ever since to provide more capabilities while still remaining focused on the original vision of enabling multivendor intent-based networking.

Among the new capabilities in Apstra 4.2 are the following:

• Improved data collection and visualization
• Enhanced network flow visibility
• Integration with Terraform infrastructure-as-code

“We're announcing several new capabilities in our data center portfolio and we kind of lump them all together with the overall theme for the launch as ‘private data center infrastructure as easy as cloud,’” Ben Baker, senior director, business analysis and cloud/data center marketing at Juniper Networks, told SDxCentral.

What is intent-based networking anyway?

Intent-based networking isn't a meaningless buzzword, and it's also not an approach that is tethered to any one particular vendor, either.

Baker said the basic idea behind intent-based networking is for an operator to define what they want the network to do. In the case of Apstra, the technology is a data center fabric that doesn't just control Juniper hardware, it also works with switches from Cisco, Arista and Dell, among others.

Intent-based networking starts with the network operator defining their intent or design for the network through a simple graphical user interface in Apstra. Baker noted that this intent becomes the single source of truth for network configurations and that single source of truth is held in Apstra's graph database.

Once the intent is defined, Apstra then automates deploying the network to match that intent. It automatically generates the vendor-specific configuration and pushes it to every device in the network.

After the initial deployment, Baker said Apstra continuously monitors the network to ensure its operational state matches the defined intent. If an unintended operational state is detected, Apstra can then resolve that issue by either correcting it directly or notifying the operator to make a decision on how to resolve it in order to keep the network functioning as originally intended.

Apstra 4.2 goes with the (network) flow

One of the big new features in the Apstra 4.2 update is improved visibility into network traffic flow to get better insights.

Baker said the new flow capability will include a collector for NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX and IFA protocols, covering nearly every networking vendor. There is also a dashboard for visualizing the data via OpenSearch.

He explained that NetFlow/sFlow/IPFIX are all sampled data points — meaning the devices take samples of network traffic at various points in time and then send it to the Apstra Flow collector. IFA (inband flow analyzer) is a real-time flow-monitoring capability, but is limited to Juniper's newer higher-end devices as it needs specific chip capabilities.

“All of this is still L1-L3 data, but it gives you insights into what is going on in the network for your applications,” Baker said. “For example, you can visualize where your bandwidth is going in relation to applications.”

Terraform and VXLAN Stitching improve data center fabric management

The Apstra 4.2 update also integrates new capabilities of better managing data center interconnects (DCIs).

The new DCI management feature is a capability Juniper refers to as VXLAN Stitching.

“Before, you could manage a DCI in an over-the-top way and that was simple, but it had one fault domain,” Baker said. “What we're doing with our new DCI management is we're making it granular, simpler and more reliable.”

With the new Terraform capability in Apstra 4.2, Juniper is also aiming for more simplicity. Terraform is a widely used infrastructure-as-code tool, developed by Hashicorp, that enables users to define how they want an infrastructure to be deployed in a programmatic and repeatable manner.

Baker said the new Terraform capability in Apstra 4.2 allows users to define their network intent through a Terraform template or configuration file. Baker explained that with this new capability, the Terraform configuration is ingested into Apstra without needing to mess with any APIs. Then Apstra automatically generates the vendor-specific configuration and pushes it to every device in the network to match the intent defined in the Terraform template. This allows users familiar with Terraform to leverage that same tool to also manage their data center network through Apstra.

Looking forward, Baker said artificial intelligence (AI) is on the roadmap for Apstra. “AI and AI operations (AIOps) will be a major area of focus for future Apstra releases,” he said.