Juniper makes its SD-WAN more automated

Juniper Networks is expanding its portfolio of services focused on managing and controlling automated SD-WAN networks in enterprises, based on cloud and AI. The latest additions build on Session Smart Routing (SSR) software acquired by Juniper when it acquired 128 Technology in 2020 for $450 million. SSR promises to reduce operating costs for WAN and SD-WAN networks by making routing decisions based on sessions and the needs of applications running on individual traditional tunnels.

Some of the upgrade’s additions include zero-touch provisioning for WAN topology configuration, security policy configuration, WAN service and policy configuration, network tenant configuration, and network setup. According to Jeff Aaron, vice president of enterprise marketing at Juniper Networks, these features are enabled by Juniper’s core cloud-based wired and wireless network management platform Mist AI. “Session Smart Routing’s (SSR) full integration with the Mist Cloud engine and AI brings new tools to manage the branch network stack lifecycle,” said Aaron.

Available for public and private clouds

Last year, Juniper had already enabled the integration of SSR telemetry data into the artificial intelligence engine Mist, in order to allow the setting, monitoring and enforcement of service levels on the WAN network, the proactive anomaly detection and better understanding of the WAN. “Juniper customers and partners now have a single, comprehensive, cloud-hosted solution to manage the entire AI-driven enterprise, with Day 0/Day 1/Day 2 operations for secure wired, wireless and SD-WAN networks,” added Aaron.

Juniper also enhanced the security of Session Smart Routing (SSR) software by adding IDS/IPS intrusion detection and prevention systems and URL filtering that “…further protect branch sites from advanced malicious attacks, steadily increasing,” Aaron said. “SSR already included encryption, segmentation, and a zero-trust framework that blocks traffic to the WAN if it doesn’t comply with session-level policies,” Aaron said. SSR can run in virtualized hosted private clouds and in public clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform, to secure cloud on-ramps. For deployment in private clouds, the software works with cloud management platforms, including VMware’s OpenStack and vCloud Director.

New SSR equipment

Juniper has also expanded its line of SSR equipment with the SSR120 and SSR130 and the SSR1000. Aimed at small and medium branch offices, the SSR120 and SSR130 families support multiple WAN options, including 4G/LTE. The SSR1000 family specifically targets head-end, data center and cloud deployments. “The idea of ​​these new hardwares is also to simplify the operations”, declared Mr. Aaron. “With request code contactless provisioning, the customer or partner simply plugs in the device, and it is automatically added to the appropriate groups with the correct configuration and policy assignments. This makes it possible to achieve large-scale deployments very quickly. Since the equipment is provided by Juniper, the hardware and software are covered by Juniper’s various support options,” said Aaron.