Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), the industry leader in network innovation, today announced the immediate availability of the Juniper Networks® QFX3000-M[2] QFabric™ System, a new model that extends the full benefits of Juniper’s first QFabric System, the QFX3000-G, to mid-sized data centres. The new QFX3000-M occupies up to 63 per cent less space, uses up to 74 per cent fewer cables and consumes up to 57 per cent less power than competitive solutions. Also today, Juniper has added enhancements to its EX8200 switches running Virtual Chassis technology, enabling customers for the first time to manage up to four data centre cores as a single switch.
These new additions to the Juniper Networks portfolio simplify data centre management and improve business agility for enterprises while eliminating the complexity inherent in multi-layered legacy networks. The QFX3000-M is designed for mid-tier data centres, satellite data centres and new 10GbE data centre pods as well as space-constrained environments, delivering improvements in scale, simplicity and performance—the key network attributes needed to meet rising storage convergence, big data and virtualisation demands.
Release Highlights
Seamless Investment Protection and Scale: Core to the QFX3000-M, Juniper is introducing a new fixed form-factor interconnect, the Juniper Networks QFX3600-I, which allows customers to incrementally scale, from 48 10GbE ports and up to 6,144 10GbE ports using the QFX3000-G QFabric System.
Blazing Fast Speed: With stellar performance the new QFX3000-M enables blazingly fast server-to-server traffic speed with only three microseconds of latency.
Seamless Integration: Also announced today is the QFX3600 node, which like the previously announced QFX3500, provides entry into both QFabric Systems. The QFX3600 is scheduled for release as a 40GbE top-of-rack switch in 2H 2012.
Flexibility and Seamless Transition: New features on the EX8200, Juniper’s data centre solution for mixed 1GbE and 10GbE environments, include the industry’s only inter-site data centre connectivity allowing network managers to manage up to four data centres, separated by up to 80 km, as a single location.
“The University is often in the position of being a trailblazer in adopting new technology and this is certainly the case with Juniper Networks’ QFabric technology. Last year we started following their 3-2-1 data centre network simplification strategy by deploying a new two-layer network that’s actually been working really well. Having evaluated the QFabric System, we found its operational and low-latency performance advantages, which are particularly important to high-performance computing, to be so compelling we decided to adopt it as our standard infrastructure across both data centres. That frees up our investment in Juniper Network EX Series switches, which cuts the cost of giving the campus network a much needed upgrade.” James Harper, associate director, Operations, University of Auckland
“Jan Yperman Hospital has a reputation for excellent patient care and research, so we really value innovative technology that can enable new working methods, clinical practices and patient services. Juniper’s QFabric is an ideal solution for our data centre because it delivers radical capabilities, outstanding performance and also provides a future-proof path for scalability and cost control. Of course, reliability, simplicity and stability are also key requirements for a hospital’s network, all of which QFabric delivers. We were particularly impressed by its low latency.” Francky Deleu, ICT manager, Jan Yperman Hospital
“We are seeing an increased interest from data centre architects to ‘right-size’ their data centre network. While a segment of the market requires massive scale, for most enterprises, dense, virtualised computing platforms are driving a requirement for smaller, higher performance form factors within the data network architecture.” Mark Fabbi, vice president, distinguished analyst, Gartner
“Juniper’s new QFX3000-M serves QFabric in a smaller package that is more attractive to mid-sized data centres and will be a more enticing step for new users.” Eric Hanselman, research director, Networks, 451 Research
“As customers transition to 10GbE and 40GbE networks they are ready to simplify network management and Juniper's fabric solution accomplishes that goal. There is an absolute need in the marketplace and customers have been hungry for a solution that provides guaranteed performance, scalability and greater efficiencies for their network.” George Miller, vice president sales, TorreyPoint
“Buildings built to last are constructed on the most solid foundations with the best materials. Data centres are no different. Today Juniper is giving mid-size enterprise CXOs the foundation and building blocks to enable management simplicity, the ability to scale without adding complexity and high application performance in their data centres.” R.K. Anand, executive vice president and general manager, Data Centre Business Unit, Juniper Networks