Apstra Freeform provides customers with the ability to manage and automate operations for data centers regardless of architecture

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), a leader in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced Apstra Freeform, the newest expansion to its multivendor data center automation and assurance platform. This capability allows Juniper’s enterprise, service provider and cloud provider customers to manage and automate their data center operations regardless of topology and protocols used.

Network operations are rapidly evolving. Whether it’s managing the effects of a global supply chain crunch or coping with changes in the workforce spurred by the pandemic, organizations of all sizes and sectors face architectural questions that will shape how they build their data centers. Sole sourcing will become multivendor, configuration will become intent-driven and root-cause identification and remediation will become automated. Juniper Apstra was built from the ground up to address this new era of operations. Apstra Freeform aims to unify experiences across vendors and automate key data center workflows as the single source of truth for data center configuration.

Freeform builds upon Apstra’s powerful intent-based networking capabilities for full lifecycle data center management across a range of data center topologies and vendors, enabling a reliable user experience that encompasses the following key features:

• New reference design covering any topology. With this new software release, Apstra simplifies IT operations by extending its intent-based networking capability to any protocol, any topology and any network domain. Customers can now choose the architecture that fits their business needs while taking advantage of Apstra capabilities.
• Reliable operations. Apstra’s role as the single source of truth enables data center designs to be applied consistently, every time. Closed-loop feedback provides IT professionals with reliable operations across disparate infrastructure.
• Value now accessible to more customers. As part of this new release, Juniper is introducing a new Apstra licensing model. Freeform extends Apstra capabilities to significantly more use cases. Customers can now choose from three licensing tiers with the option to seamlessly upgrade at any time as needed.

“Apstra continues to emphasize the importance of reliable and consistent multivendor data center operations,” said Mike Bushong, Group VP of Data Center Product Management at Juniper Networks. “With the introduction of Freeform, we are expanding operational efficiency further into the market. Freeform brings full control of the network design into the hands of data center operators, giving them complete flexibility and versatility. Without topology constraints, we are truly democratizing intent-based networking and allowing everyone to benefit from the best operational practices in the cloud era.”

To address ever-evolving business requirements, organizations must continue to focus on the speed and scale of their operations, all while maintaining reliability. Apstra delivers consistent, reliable data center operations through continuously validated, intent-driven blueprints across multiple vendors. By giving customers the freedom of choice and innovation through multivendor support, Juniper continues to take a fundamentally different approach to data center operations management.

Juniper Networks Professional Services provides Apstra Automated Deployment and Migration Services for customers using validated data center reference designs, as well as flexible Freeform reference designs. Both Services are fully customizable and can be tailored to specific customer requirements or leveraged for any feature, protocol or architecture.

Supporting Quotes:

“Atos has enjoyed a partnership with Juniper for over ten years. As a global system integrator, we give our clients business plasticity to change, adapt and innovate with velocity, creating standard multi-partner, repeatable data center network architectures. Data center reference designs within Apstra allow us to deploy and operate partner agnostic data center network fabrics quickly, automatically and seamlessly. Atos supports customers in many verticals and, occasionally, requirements dictate different network architectures. With Apstra Freeform, we’re able to automatically build different architectures and still operate them using Apstra. Flexible vendor agnostic network architectures with Apstra’s reliability, simplicity, telemetry and intent networking are an excellent enhancement to the Apstra platform.”

– Lee Wright, VP CTO Infrastructure, Atos

“Apstra’s unique ability to manage multivendor environments gives our customers the strategic flexibility to use hardware from different vendors. Freeform introduces additional capabilities to employ Apstra over a range of different data center designs, all packaged with a licensing model built for scale.”

– David Brady, EVP, Myriad360

“Data center operations teams are confronting challenges and complexity on multiple fronts: the pressure to make network operations simpler and more agile through extensive automation; supply chain disruptions that affect availability of infrastructure and timing of refresh schedules; the complexity of heterogenous application environments and infrastructure; and skills gaps that inhibit how quickly existing personnel can adapt to change. With the release of Freeform, Juniper Apstra is helping customers address these challenges by investing Apstra’s full-lifecycle intent-based network management with a greater degree of versatility to accommodate a broader array of protocols and topologies.”

– Brad Casemore, Research Vice President, Datacenter and Multicloud Networks, IDC

Additional Resources:

Launch Blog: Introducing Apstra Freeform: Fast, Simple, Intent-Based Data Center Automation, Now Extensible Anywhere

• Product & solutions pages:
  • Apstra Product Page
  • Apstra Datasheet
  • Apstra At A Glance
  • Data Center Solutions Page
  • IT Networking Solution Page

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is dedicated to dramatically simplifying network operations and driving superior experiences for end users. Our solutions deliver industry-leading insight, automation, security, and AI to drive real business results. We believe that powering connections will bring us closer together while empowering us all to solve the world’s greatest challenges of well-being, sustainability, and equality. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Juniper, Junos, and other trademarks listed here are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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