Juniper this week unveiled a portfolio of switching, wireless and security products designed to enable enterprises to easily deploy them and then ensure management and security of all connected mobile devices.
The range of products fall under Juniper’s new “Simply Connected” umbrella. They include three Ethernet access switches, a wireless LAN controller, and enhanced security software for mobile devices running Apple iOS and Google Android.
Juniper’s launch is intended to address the growth of wireless devices accessing corporate data on enterprise networks. Workers tend to use a mobile device of their choosing, which creates management and security challenges for IT departments.
Simply Connected is designed to allow enterprises to connect workers’ device of choice while maintaining consistent security and reliability, according to Juniper.
The company is not alone in addressing this need – indeed, it follows similar launches from Cisco, HP and Extreme Networks. Juniper faces an uphill battle though, being a relatively new entrant to the enterprise networking market compared to those three.
“This is still a net new market for Juniper,” says Jon Oltsik, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. “But there’s a lot of business out there, the enterprise campus networks are changing, and people are willing to open up to a new vendor when the network is changing.”
Juniper hopes its three new switches turn heads. They include the EX6200, EX3300 and EX2200-C.
The 6200 is a modular, chassis-based system with 10 slots for holding Switch Fabric Routing Engine (SRE) modules and I/O line cards. Two of the slots carry the SREs while the remaining eight house the line cards.
Two EX6200 48-port 10/1000/1000BASE-T line cards are available, with and without support for the IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard. The PoE line card also supports the IEEE 802.3at PoE+ standard, which delivers up to 30 watts of power per port for devices that require more than the 15.4 watts provided by PoE.
A single 14RU EX6200 chassis can support up to 432 PoE+ ports, Juniper says.