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EventOn September 16, 2013, Juniper Networks made several important SDN-related announcements. Juniper Networks announced the availability of its SDN virtual network overlay solution, Juniper Networks Contrail (formerly known as JunosV Contrail), which includes an SDN controller, vRouter, and analytics engine. Juniper also announced its Technology Development Ecosystem Partners, who have signed on to facilitate SDN deployment through integration with Contrail. New partners include Cedexis, Check Point Software Technologies, Citrix, Cloudscaling, Dorado Software, Flash Networks, Gencore Systems, Gigamon, Guavus, ISC8, Lumeta, Mirantis, Red Hat, Riverbed, Sandvine, SevOne, Silver Peak, Sonus Networks, and Websense. Juniper formed a new partnership with IBM that integrates Contrail with IBM’s SmartCloud Orchestrator. Further, Juniper introduced OpenContrail, a new open source project that makes the source code library for Juniper Networks® Contrail available through an Apache 2.0 License. The commercial version of Contrail is available now through the Juniper Software Advantage and is offered as both a perpetual and subscription software license. Perpetual license is priced at U.S. $1,700 per socket and one-year subscription license at U.S. $1,000 per socket.

SDN Controller Battles Begin in EarnestFollowing the announcement of a test drive edition of VMware NSX, and well ahead of any news from rival Cisco, Juniper followed through on its SDN plans and announced the availability of an SDN controller and overlay solution. Juniper clearly won the “who got there first award,” since VMware NSX was not yet available for purchase. Up until this point, the SDN controller story has been centered on OpenFlow, with the majority of activity coming from network equipment vendors who have enabled OpenFlow on their networking equipment and in some cases built their own OpenFlow controller or OpenFlow framework, along with a gaggle of APIs. This announcement gives the SDN overlay a stake in the game. While the OpenFlow approach does add programmability, it requires installing OpenFlow enabled equipment and a DevOps team to make it a reality. This has great appeal for the shops that need that kind of granular control, but without a big budget and full DevOps team to operate it, at this point in time it is not a viable option for the mainstream enterprise. The overlay approach holds more promise for mainstream adoption, because as it has been described as less disruptive, since by design it should not require any rip and replace at the physical hardware layer to implement. Up until this point the overlay portion of the SDN story has largely been just theory, but with VMware NSX’s impending arrival and the immediate availability of the Juniper solution, the overlay approach is making its presence known. An open source project and the GA of a commercial one means the technology can now be put through its paces and the reality of implementation can be more fully understood from an operational perspective. If the overlay method can deliver on its promises, it could easily outpace and push aside the more fragmented OpenFlow approach as the better path to realizing network virtualization.

Juniper has been very careful to position its approach in a way that does not pit them as a direct competitor to the VMware NSX offering. Where VMware NSX is very much pushing the network virtualization story, Juniper’s positioning is more about Contrail being a complimentary virtual networking solution that will enable customers to more rapidly build private and hybrid clouds. The Contrail Controller integrates with open cloud orchestration solutions (i.e. CloudStack and OpenStack) and with SP

Juniper Jumpstarts Innovation: Open Sources SDN Controller

This announcement gives the SDN overlay a stake in the game.

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OSS/ BSS systems. It sits between the orchestration system and network devices (physical underlay, virtualized appliances) and communicates via published RESTful APIs. The Contrail Controller has three software components: configuration, control, and analytics. The configuration component is responsible for the management layer, and translates high-level requests (“what” services should be implemented) from an orchestration system or management portal into low-level provisioning requests (“how” to implement them). The control piece interacts directly with the network elements, and other controllers, representing the centralized portion of the control plan. The analytics component collects, stores, correlates and analyzes information across the network elements for troubleshooting and diagnostics. Contrail wants to act as the glue that provides connectivity between the physical and virtual layers of the network. Juniper has described the Contrail Controller as being like a compiler that translates abstract commands into specific rules and policies to automate the provisioning of workloads and enable service chaining of network and security services.

Value of Open SourceOpenContrail is the new open source project that Juniper Networks established to make the source code library for Juniper Networks Contrail available through an Apache 2.0 License. In a new and emerging market, open source communities provide a valuable avenue for innovation and the ability to test drive new technology. The overlay approach is new. It changes how we think about networking and how services and applications use those networking resources. A burgeoning market needs fertile soil in which to develop and grow. Open source communities are great incubators for new and emerging technologies. New ideas can be put through their paces and the model strives to keep the focus on developing the core technology. For the enterprise IT department, open source can often fill in gaps where budget limitations do not allow the purchase of a commercial product. CIOs embrace proven open source technology such as Apache because it is has demonstrated its viability in production environments. What CIOs also like about open source is that it allows them to test drive a technology in a controlled way without impacting their CAPEX plans. There are certainly operational expenses that still come along with the use of open source; however, operational budgets tend to be far more flexible than capital budgets.

It was an unexpected move for Juniper to open source the Contrail technology, but still a good one. This is a new market and there is very little chance that VMware would ever open source NSX, so this is a nice way for customers, technology vendors, and VARs to all dig into the technology and start to figure out how they can make it work in real world deployments. New technology cannot exist in isolation, but requires an ecosystem of supporting components that take advantage of the solution so that it becomes part of day-to-day IT operations.

EMA PerspectiveIt would be nice to have a dollar for all the companies waving the SDN banner. There are many little pop-up players who claim to have some component of the SDN puzzle solved in hopes of being snapped up by a larger IT vendor who wants to lay claim to the IP. Juniper is not just “claiming” to be a player; Juniper Networks is a $4 billion plus networking company that is serious about remaining relevant in the coming storm around network virtualization. Not only is Juniper shipping its controller, but also it has technology partners already committed to developing solutions that take advantage of the Contrail technology and the product is in trials with 40 global customers. This is very important and often a key step when technology vendors rush to market especially around hot new technology trends. Too often there is much “me too,” but very little third-party support infrastructure to validate and

Open source communities are great incubators for new and emerging technologies.

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move the new technology forward. New technology trends that play across the IT infrastructure require buy-in from other third-party IT vendors to help it take root and evolve. Juniper already has a very good technology partnership program, but they have taken that added step of building one specifically around the SDN architecture. To support their cloud play they have key technology partnerships with both OpenStack and CloudStack players. To ensure performance, visibility and security needs are addressed other technology partners include Riverbed, Gigamon, and CheckPoint, as well as others. And perhaps the biggest kudos goes towards Juniper’s ability to land IBM as a new technology partner, with stated plans to integrate Contrail into IBM’s cloud orchestration engine. This also helps to cement Juniper’s position as a cloud enabling technology and not a direct VMware NSX competitor.

That said, the IBM/Juniper partnership does beg the question of where this puts the OpenDayLight project, of which IBM and Juniper are both platinum sponsors. Juniper has said that the OpenDayLight project is welcome to make use of OpenContrail, but there does not seem to be any movement on that front. The OpenDayLight project appears to be determined to go along at its own pace which may ultimately undermine its ability to provide any meaningful impact, as the market starts to mature and move forward members may continue to move to greener pastures. Juniper fired the first shot; what remains to be seen is how the other major technology players, such as Cisco, respond.

About EMA Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading industry analyst firm that provides deep insight across the full spectrum of IT and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices, and in-depth knowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help its clients achieve their goals. Learn more about EMA research, analysis, and consulting services for enterprise line of business users, IT professionals and IT vendors at www.enterprisemanagement.com or blogs.enterprisemanagement.com. You can also follow EMA on Twitter or Facebook. 2773.100113

Juniper Networks is a $4 billion plus networking company that

is serious about remaining relevant in the coming storm around network virtualization.