Juniper Networks’ Unite architecture is living up to its name, bringing more enterprise network gear into its system for simplified management and scaling.
The latest additions to the lineup are entry-level and midrange access switches that also include other features for ease of use.
Unite, introduced last year for the EX9200 core switches and other Juniper and third-party components, is designed to help enterprises turn their own infrastructure into private clouds and link those to public clouds in a hybrid architecture. It’s built around Junos Fusion Enterprise software, which collapses multiple network layers into one for simpler management. That gives administrators a single point of management.
The software uses the IEEE 802.1BR Bridge Port Extension standard, which extends a bridge and its management beyond its physical enclosure to create a single-tier architecture. When it announced Unite, Juniper said existing EX switches not more than three years old could be part of the architecture.
On Thursday, Juniper introduced two entry-level access switches built to work with Unite: the 24-port EX2300 and the 12-port EX2300-C, a silent, compact version with no fan that’s designed for open or quiet environments. Both have Gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting to client devices, with 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks to the rest of the network.
For midrange enterprises, it launched the EX3400, with 24 or 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and both 10-Gigabit and 40-Gigabit uplinks. The EX3400 has redundant power supplies and fans for hardware resiliency. Its 1Gbps and 10Gbps ports have hardware encryption.
All the new switches can be deployed as endpoints in a Junos Fusion Enterprise fabric. They also come with zero-touch provisioning for easy setup.
The new models all have fixed configurations but can be logically combined into Virtual Chassis configurations and managed as one. As many as four EX2300 or EX2300-C switches can be combined, and the EX3400s can be linked into a Virtual Chassis of 10 switches.
The EX2300 will start at US$1,600 and the EX3400 at $3,300. Both will start shipping in July.