Juniper Networks Advances Secure and Assured Data Center Application Delivery; New Juniper Networks DX Platform Delivers New Acceleration and Management Features

Business Wire, Feb 13, 2006

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Juniper Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:JNPR) today announced a new version of operating system software for the DX, Juniper Networks' data center application acceleration platform, which enables customers to enhance the performance of applications centralized in data centers. The new DX operating system software, DXOS(TM) version 5.1, enables all DX platforms -- the DX 3200, DX 3250, DX 3600 and DX 3650 -- to integrate functionally with Juniper Networks SSL VPN appliances and routers, deliver global server load balancing, simplify management; with a new easy-to-use web interface, and offer more flexible software licensing options; with a new entry price for enterprise customers.

The Juniper Networks DX platform enables enterprise customers to simplify data center operations and accelerate performance of web-enabled applications to increase productivity for remote and mobile users and provide higher levels of server scalability and availability, while reducing costs.

With the latest DXOS software, the DX application acceleration platforms enable functional integration with Juniper Networks' Secure Access (SA) SSL VPN appliances, delivering a best-in-class performance solution for the extended enterprise. Additionally, the DX platform can set Quality of Service (QoS) priority levels for business-critical applications, enabling IT managers to meet business needs by setting standards-based service levels that can be enforced by Juniper Networks M- and J-series routers and WAN application acceleration (WX) platforms deployed in the enterprise or service provider network.

Worldwide Application Support

Global enterprises typically rely on multiple data centers in different geographies. The new global server load balancing (GSLB) functionality in the DXOS software allows IT managers to ensure that clients are connected to the data center best equipped to fulfill their request, in a timely fashion, regardless of location. The DX platform uses advanced DNS-based algorithms for GSLB functionality to determine which data center can respond to a client's request most quickly, based a combination of round-trip times and data center capacity.

"Customers look to application acceleration solutions as a way to maximize their data center investments and contain their infrastructure and operational costs," said Joe Skorupa, research director at Gartner. "As these deployments become more mainstream, customers require solutions that remove the complexity from solving their application performance problems."

Simplified Operations

The new enhancements in the DXOS software improve the user experience and offer simple, customizable options. These include a new, user-friendly web interface making it easier to configure the DX platform, monitor performance and generate reports. Through the new web interface, users can gain a complete performance overview of web-enabled applications. Using the DX dashboard, IT managers can assess the health of their data center at a glance and drill down to quickly identify, isolate and resolve performance problems.

A new AppRules(TM) adaptive content processing wizard interface helps IT managers easily enable predefined application plug-in rules or write custom "if-then" rules, based on any combination of factors for both incoming user requests and outgoing server responses. The high-performance AppRules feature allows users to modify application behavior and transform content on the fly to compensate for inherent inefficiencies, enhance application security or other problems, without altering the application code itself.

New Licensing Options

To give users a new level of flexibility and price/performance, the DX platform now offers four different license levels, allowing users to deploy the version that best suits their current needs and upgrade functionality as needed to keep pace with escalating demands, without changing the hardware.

The four license levels are:

--Server load balancing (SLB) and secure sockets layer (SSL) termination (base functionality)

--HTTP/S acceleration and compression, plus transport connection protocol (TCP) multiplexing (includes base functionality)

--Advanced HTTP/S acceleration and AppRules adaptive content processing and 3G caching (includes base functionality, HTTP acceleration and compression, and TCP multiplexing)

--Global server load balancing (GSLB) functionality (applicable across all levels), which can be enabled for any of the three license levels above.

"We realize that, for the vast majority of businesses, the move to web-enabled applications is an evolutionary process," says Michael Banic, director of product marketing at Juniper. "With the latest release of the DXOS software, we allow users to deploy a DX platform with the base functionality and incrementally add acceleration functionality through a simple license upgrade, without having to invest in new hardware or disrupt the data center infrastructure. With this release, Juniper Networks makes it easier for enterprises to operationalize application acceleration in the data center and benefit from our broad portfolio."