Juniper opens its networks to third party applications

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 29 October 2009 10:04

Business IT - Technology

Harding said that one large customer of Packet Analyser had said: "This is fantastic. When we use it we see a 30 x reduction in time to recover [from a failure]."

He added: "We have a full roadmap of R&D over then next four quarters. We will develop apps for campus switching, security, virtualisation, for cloud, for WAN optimisation...We will focus on organic applications around the infrastructure and count on the partner ecosystem to help us with business, productivity and collaboration applications."

Junos Pulse is a new integrated multi-service network client that combines remote SSL and VPN access and WAN acceleration, presently available from Juniper as separate network clients - into a single application that "hides security complexity to deliver a better experience for users wherever they are." Junos Pulse will provide location-aware and identity-aware access to networks, including enterprise access controls.

 Harding said: "We have made it standards based so we can integrate other types of application, for example anti virus or endpoint security from companies like McAfee and Symantec. Ultimately our intent is that it will be the only network client you need. This is only a first step for us."

Juniper's existing network client software has been licensed to run on more than 20 million PCs and mobile devices worldwide, and these users will have a seamless upgrade path to Junos Pulse, the company says.

The Junos Space platform and applications are available now for download and free trial – pricing starts at $15,000. The Junos Pulse client will be available in first half 2010. The software development kit for Junos Pulse will be generally available in the second half of 2010.

Commenting on the new product, the Yankee Group's Jennifer Pigg said: "Juniper's path to innovation diverges sharply from that of its competitors. Up until now, network applications such as security, configuration and planning, and policy management have been tied to the specific hardware and chipsets to which they were written: firewalls, network routers and switches, and policy servers.

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