Network monitoring company ThousandEyes partnered with Juniper Networks to create an integrated, automated way to provide service providers and enterprises visibility into network performance and application delivery across hybrid wide area networks (WANs).

ThousandEyes’ software-based Enterprise Agents will be deployed as virtual network functions (VNFs) on Juniper's Cloud CPE platform, primarily on its NFX250 branch routers.

The Enterprise Agents use ThousandEyes' network monitoring platform to provide visualization and fault isolation of network problems and application performance. These agents when deployed on Juniper’s Cloud CPE extend the visibility to enterprise branches, data centers, and enterprise sites on the Internet, as well as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.

As more enterprises transition into a hybrid WAN model, application performance and user experience will depend on networks, infrastructures, and services that they can’t control, according to Alex Henthorn-Iwane, vice president of product marketing at ThousandEyes. “That leaves a big blind spot that often makes it impossible to know where problems are coming from, who is accountable, and how to solve them,” he said.

The joint solution of ThousandEyes' monitoring and Juniper’s Cloud CPE sees into this blind spot.

An enterprise that deploys Juniper’s Cloud CPE on its branches will use Juniper Contrail NFV orchestration — its open cloud network automation product — to deploy and manage the VNF ThousandEyes enterprise agents. The joint solution will provide insight into performance whether the enterprise WAN is connected by MPLS, VPN, or direct Internet access.

This isn’t the first legacy networking company that ThousandEyes has partnered with. The company launched support for Cisco enterprise routers in 2016. Similarly, this partnership addressed visibility concerns when migrating to a hybrid WAN model.

Henthorn-Iwane said that this is where enterprises and networking companies are heading, and network monitoring has to follow — or lead. “Our most successful customers deploy ThousandEyes ahead of new cloud rollouts to baseline performance and ensure branch readiness, as well as operate and troubleshoot in this ‘new normal’ environment,” he said.