Juniper Networks today introduced the latest Apstra expansions that bring intent-based networking capabilities to edge data centers, along with new zero-trust security services.
The networking giant acquired Apstra early last year in a bid to drive deeper automation into Juniper’s Junos-based data center networking platform. The latest progression of the integration is extending Apstra’s intent-based approach to new use cases at the network edge.
“This allows our customers to use Apstra as they evolve their data centers from centralized to decentralized,” Mansour Karam, Apstra’s founder and VP of product at Juniper Networks, told SDxCentral. “What we're seeing is customers are moving more toward smaller data centers that are closer to the end user whether that is in [colocation] facilities or in distributed branches or locations.”
To address this trend, the Apstra platform extends all its existing data center management and analytics capabilities to edge use cases. Plus, the new edge deployment model supports collapsed fabric topologies that are often used in smaller, remote, edge data centers.
“By extending Apstra’s use cases to edge data centers, organizations can design, validate and scale their networks across multiple environments, all with the reliability of automation,” IDC research VP Brad Casemore said in a statement.
Apstra Detects Security Policy ConflictsJuniper also enhanced Apstra’s policy assurance capabilities to further deploy zero-trust security across the network.
On top of the fundamental security hygiene, Apstra software allows users to specify group-based security policies and then provide conflicts and duplicated rules detection services.
“The Apstra solution can push the configurations across all the vendors to ensure that this policy, this security posture that you've specified to get implemented. And then it continuously measures, and if it sees any violations for that policy, then it will alert you and help you remediate,” Karam explained.
The policy assurance also enables connectivity restrictions for multi-tenant environments and role-based access control for multi-vendor environments.
“What we've implemented is a security policy that allows these tenants to be completely physically separated, even if they're on the same network,” Karam said.
Apstra Offers Professional Services for Network TransformationIn addition to addressing the trends of edge migration and zero-trust adoption, Juniper introduced new Apstra Professional Services to help organizations move from their legacy network to “a new fully automated, modern network, either centralized or distributed,” Karam said, adding that “the core of digital transformation is network transformation.”
This is “a full white-glove experience” that includes consulting and implementation, he added.
“As the demand for digital infrastructure continues, Apstra’s new migration services address the changing nature of the Juniper Business Use Only networking community, helping organizations overcome significant hurdles in modernizing their data center infrastructure on-prem and at the edge,” Casemore echoed.
All the new Apstra enhancements will be available in the second quarter.
Juniper Apstra Gains Momentum With 400% Logo IncreaseThe latest enhancements came at the heels of Juniper’s Apstra 4.0 launch last year, which introduced the connectivity templates that allow customers to tailor their network configurations to meet specific goals without having to manually push configuration scripts.
Besides the technology development, Karam also boasted Apstra’s growth after joining Juniper. “We've not only kept the team but also grown the team as we continue hiring the best engineers,” he said. “We've expanded our engagements, our revenues are higher than ever, [and] we're central to the data center sale at Juniper.”
Plus, Apstra grew its customer base by 400% since the acquisition and expanded its geographic footprint to more than 60 countries, he added.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to clarify comments on Juniper Apstra's logo increase.