Juniper's Big Day: New Software Platform, New Hardware, New Partners

Juniper is making a number of announcements today at an analyst's day in New York. Most important is Junos Space, a new software integration program that provides integration capabilities with Junos operating system. Then there is Junos Pulse, an integrated software client, a new chipset for the MX routers for service providers and large enterprises, as well as a cloud computing initiative to deliver a host of services such as scaling, application visibility, and threat protection.

Juniper's announcements are an important stake in the  ground. There are a number of important partnerships, such as IBM's and Dells OEM deals, and a new software licensing partnership with Blade Network Technologies to build Junos blade switches for chassis, driving right at the heart of rivals like Cisco and HP. Of course, missing form Juniper's product plans is storage networking, but it seems that Juniper is focused on delivering networking services and integrating with computing equipment vendors. The more important announcement today is Space.

Junos Space is an integration SDK and API that allows third parties to tightly integrate with Juniper's products running the Junos operating system. This allows companies to create software and services that respond quickly to changes in the network and opens up opportunities for Juniper partners to differentiate their product sets from competitors. Unlike other programs, like Cisco's AXP and 3Com's OSN (both requiring daughter cards inserted into their respective multi purpose routers), Space applications can integrate across the Junos product line.

Junos Pulse seems like a rebranding of their Oddessy Access client. Back in June, Juniper announced plans to unify their client software for SSL VPN, Universal Access Client (UAC), and WAN optimization and acceleration client, as well as integrating anti-malware software from WebRoot.

For service providers Juniper launched the MX series of routers with what they call 3D scaling. The Junos Trio chipset, an 80 million dollar, five year development cycle, offers a massive jump in router scaling over previous chipsets, so representatives from Juniper claim. Targeted for service providers and large enterprises, the MX series of routers are the types of products that Juniper built its business on: robust, high throughput, multi-service routers that are stable and reliable.Finally, Juniper is announcing a cloud-ready infrastructure based on their SRX router line, increasing capacity with 10Gb connections, as well as support for 10 million concurrent sessions and coordinated threat control. The cloud initiative, through integration with Altor Networks, sets access policies for virtual and physical machines.