Juniper extends data centre interconnect options

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Source: Juniper

22 March 2017

Large data centre interconnect users needing high-speed connectivity and bandwidth for access to massive cloud resources have a new option to handle these demands.

Juniper has rolled out its Open Cloud Interconnect package which includes Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing optical boards for its QFX10000 Layer 3 spine switch and BTI7800 optical transport switch families as well as software to manage those systems.

Specifically, the company announced:

  • QFX10000 Coherent DWDM Line Card: The card supports 1.2Tbps of optical capacity with six ports of up to 200Gbps each. With the Coherent DWDM Line Card, QFX10000 customers can combine DCI-optimised Ethernet VPN (EVPN), VXLAN and MacSec security with highly scalable, low-power coherent DWDM.
  • The UFM6 line card for the BTI 7800: A new muxponder/transponder combining 10 configurable 10GE/100GE client ports and two coherent DWDM ports of up to 200Gbps each. The UFM6 also supports SD-FEC for increased performance across metro, regional and long-haul spans up to 2000 km and is interoperable with Juniper and third-party coherent DWDM linecards.
  • Extended management: Juniper’s proNX Service Manager software now manages coherent optical interfaces across Juniper’s MX and PTX Series Routers, QFX Series Switches and the BTI Series packet optical portfolio. Enhanced levels of network visibility and multi-layer control are now available through YANG-based integration of proNX Service Manager and Juniper NorthStar Controller.

Some of the technology in the Juniper system came from its acquisition of BTI Systems a year ago. BTI offered cloud and metro networking systems. At the time, Network World wrote that BTI will let Juniper accelerate delivery of packet optical transport systems for the data centre interconnect and metro optical networking markets and indeed that has come to fruition.

“Open Cloud Interconnect offers customers multiple ways to build DCI networks, including over open and disaggregated optical transport,” said Donyel Jones-Williams, director of service provider portfolio marketing at Juniper Networks. The package supports a mix of routing, switching, packet optical, network management and software-defined networking to enhance the performance of cloud content, services and applications, he stated.

Cloud application delivery is certainly one of the main drivers for this kind of offering but users are looking to tie together data centres as a virtual pool of resources as well, said Shin Umeda, a vice president with researchers at the Dell’Oro Group.

Umeda said that Juniper’s DCI move puts it in closer competition with Cisco, Arista and Huawei from the IP routing and switching side and Cisco, Ciena, Adva, Nokia and others in the optical switching arena.

“The move gives Juniper a stake in the ground in both IP and optical DCI markets and the BTI technology is a differentiator for it in the optical area,” Umeda said.

Keeping its cloud customers happy would also be a goal for Juniper as the company said in its most recent financial statement that five of its top 10 customers are cloud providers, three were telecoms and two enterprises.

 

 

IDG News Service

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