Juniper Networks Its Way Into Mobility Space
Juniper Networks is expanding beyond its wired boundaries into the mobility space, with a slew of solutions at this year’s Mobile World Congress focusing on security, trafficking and applications development, among other things. Here are some details.
The Juniper solutions are part of a new “technology framework” for mobility – an area Juniper has had little involvement in until now. With an open architecture as its main driver, the framework utilizes open standards and flexible software platforms so mobile operators can handle a broad range of devices and applications over one network. The MX 3D Series Universal Edge Routers and SRX Series Services Gateways make up the hardware component of the framework, and use both Juniper and partner applications.
As part of the framework, Juniper announced the first solution in its “Project Falcon” initiative announced fall 2009, a program to develop universal edge applications integrating wireline and wireless networks, as well as products for the mobile packet core and subscriber management of 4G networks. Juniper Traffic Direct, as it’s called, optimizes mobile data traffic by combining intelligent subscriber and application policies with MX 3D Series scaling to offload bulk data traffic directly to the Internet. Good for carriers looking to address the user experience and cost issues of the burgeoning mobile traffic space.
Juniper also unveiled technology related to the security of mobility, including Junos Pulse for Smartphones, a downloadable client that provides secure connections across smartphones, notebooks and netbooks to corporate applications; and Juniper Mobile Secure, a solution that integrates security across mobile devices, applications and networks via the SRX gateways and Pulse client software.
In addition, Juniper rolled out carrier-grade solutions for mobile video and technology that will provide an open and secure mobile packet core to monetize 3G and 4G services on the same network.
Such new innovations don’t have many immediate implications for solution providers, but they do speak to Juniper’s quest to expand beyond its traditional wireline borders. It also gives service providers fodder as they look to enhance the mobile experience for end users, a large percentage of whom are enterprise customers. And as the desire for richer, heftier apps take precedence in the mobile space, Juniper is showing it’s got the goods to deliver.
