Juniper Networks introduced its JunosV Contrail Contrail Controller for software-defined networks (SDN).
The JunosV Contrail, which is currently in trials with service provider and enterprise customers, virtualizes the network to enable seamless automation and orchestration among private and public cloud environments, elastic management of IP-based network and security services, and a “Big Data for Infrastructure” offering for enhanced analytics, diagnostics and reporting. It leverages intellectual property from Contrail Systems, which Juniper acquired earlier this year.
The SDN controller will be the first in a JunosV Contrail family of products. The JunosV Contrail family of products is scheduled to be available for purchase in the second half of 2013 under the Juniper Software Advantage licensing program.
“Customers are looking for agility in their networks. With JunosV Contrail, Juniper will deliver a network infrastructure that meets customers’ immediate and long term needs. The response from our trial customers has been overwhelmingly positive and from a roadmap perspective, we are delivering on our SDN strategy ahead of schedule. From our systems to a growing portfolio of new SDN software, and a cloud-oriented software licensing model that grows with our customers’ needs, Juniper provides a simpler and lower risk option to begin the transition to an SDN future,” stated Bob Muglia, executive vice president, Software Solutions Division, Juniper Networks.
In January 2013, Juniper Networks outlined a four-step roadmap to software-defined networking with the goal of improving automation and agility in data centers and across service provider networks.
A key part of Juniper’s SDN strategy involves the concept of “Service Chaining” whereby an SDN controller is used to virtually insert services into the flow of network traffic. The company sees SDN extending all the way across all domains of the network: Core, Edge, Access & Aggregation, Data Center, WAN, Campus & Branch. Juniper’s SDN roadmap initially targets two of these areas — the Service Provider Edge and the Data Center.
Juniper is enabling the SDN virtualization with existing protocols, including BGP, thereby enabling the existing routing and switching infrastructure to participate in the SDN transformation. Juniper will adopt the OpenStack model as its primary orchestration system and will work with others including VMware and IBM. Juniper is introducing a new software licensing and maintenance model that allows the transfer of software licenses between Juniper devices and industry-standard x86 servers.
Juniper’s Four Step Roadmap
- Step 1: Centralize network management, analytics and configuration functionality to provide a single master that configures all networking devices.
- Step 2: Extract networking and security services from the underlying hardware by creating service virtual machines (VMs). This enables network and security services to independently scale using industry-standard x86 hardware based on the needs of the solution.
- Step 3: Introduce a centralized controller that enables multiple network and security services to connect in series across devices within the network using “SDN Service Chaining” – using software to virtually insert services into the flow of network traffic. The SDN Service Chaining will be introduced in 2014 utilizing the SDN controller technology acquired from Contrail Systems, together with the evolution of the JunosV App Engine.
- Step 4: Optimize the usage of network and security hardware to deliver high performance. Specifically, Juniper’s MX Series and SRX Series products will evolve to support software-based Service Chaining architecture.
In December 2012, Juniper Networks agreed to acquire Contrail Systems, a start-up developing software defined networking (SDN) solutions for approximately $176 million in cash and stock.
Contrail Systems, which was based in Santa Clara, California, was founded in early 2012 is still in stealth mode. No products had been announced at the time of the acquisition. Juniper said the acquisition brings an SDN architectural approach that augments its portfolio of products and services.
Contrail Systems was headed by Ankur Singla (CEO), who previously served as Chief Technology Officer and VP of Engineering at Aruba Networks. The Contrail team included Dr. Kireeti Kompella (CTO), who was formerly CTO and Chief Architect, JunOS at Juniper; Pedro Marques,previously a developer of control applications for the Cluster Management Team at Google and before that a distinguished engineer at Cisco and Juniper; Harshad Nakil, previously at Aruba Fellow and also distinguished engineer at Juniper and Cisco; and others. Juniper was a strategic investor in Contrail. Khosla Ventures was also an investor.
