Juniper Networks today introduced several products as part of a multicloud initiative. The products include some new switches and a cloud-based management platform called Sky Enterprise for deploying Juniper switching and security products.

Mike Bushong, Juniper's VP of enterprise cloud marketing, said the initiative is unique among its competitors because it takes into consideration an enterprise’s larger ecosystem including data centers, campus, branch, and cloud. And it’s all managed by the company’s Junos Operating System to automate across multiple places in the network.

“It's the amplification of a broad push around multicloud,” said Bushong. “We're setting our sites on secure and automated multicloud.”

Bushong said Juniper has some other innovations in the works as part of its multicloud strategy. Today’s news is the first step. It’s focused on connectivity for everything: to connect the campus, to the data center, to the branch, to the clouds.

“multicloud is not just the data center or public cloud,” he said. “Everything has to be connected to everything else. multicloud requires the on-ramps to the clouds. With this launch we're solving the connectivity problem.”

For the data center, Juniper unveiled some new switches, specifically targeting organizations that are refreshing, expanding, or consolidating their data centers. The new switches include:

• The new QFX10002-60C universal switch for data center spine, data center edge, and DCI.
• The QFX5210-64C that serves multiple roles in the data center including a lean spine switch, as users transition to higher speeds.
• The QFX5200-48Y switch for enterprises migrating from 10GbE to 25GbE network interface cards (NICs)

Juniper expanded its campus portfolio with its new Sky Enterprise service that enables operators to deploy, configure, and manage switching and security devices. Sky Enterprise also gives operators visibility into wireless access points using Aerohive Hive Manager NG API integration.

And Juniper announced new switches for the branch, including the EX2300 and EX4300 multi-gig switches. Juniper also introduced the new compact core EX9250 switch which gives enterprises multiple fabric management options by supporting both 802.1BR and Ethernet VPN (EVPN).

Also for the branch, Juniper's new NFX150 network services platform includes native branch security and hybrid WAN. The platform adds wireless 4G LTE connectivity between branches and has the ability to run third-party virtual network functions (VNFs).

For its Contrail SD-WAN, Juniper is offering new subscription-based pricing. The updated solution automates the vSRX Virtual Firewall-as-WAN end points in public clouds like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, simplifying migration to multicloud.

Finally, Juniper is providing secure cloud connectivity for organizations to securely move workloads between on premises and public clouds with the deployment of Juniper's vSRX Virtual Firewalls. The solution provides advanced network and application security through its secure IPsec VPN connectivity to AWS VPCs, private clouds, and on-premises environments.

“We're positioning Juniper to facilitate enterprises’ migration to multicloud,” said Bushong. “Enterprises should use naturally occurring refresh opportunities to move forward and make themselves more multicloud ready.”