Juniper Jobs

As a Juniper Services Company, demand from customers for utlising our consultants for project work is sky high at the moment. I'm not sure whether this is down to the fact that we are a growing company or whether due to the financial climate, restructing of staff and redundancies have left skills gaps in clients IT departments.

Anyway this recent surge led me to have a look at the state of the Juniper Jobs Market and I thought I'd share these interesting stats with you from itjobswatch.

For the 6 months to 20 October 2008, IT jobs within the UK citing Juniper also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity:

Cisco 78.9%
CheckPoint 39.7%
Windows 17.51%
BlueCoat 15.58%
Linux 13.43%
Nortel 10.65%

For the 3 months to 2o October 2008, below shows the geographic location of Juniper Jobs based on UK Job Adverts citing Juniper:

TOTAL ADVERTS 843

London 439
South East 271
Berkshire 98
Hampshire 78
Reading 51
North West 41
Basingstoke 38
East of England 31
Surrey 30
Manchester 22
Yorkshire 18
West Midlands 18

For the 6 months to 20 October 2008, IT jobs within the UK citing Juniper were in the following industry sectors:

Finance 14.67%
IT/Telecoms 12.12%
Health 3.40%
Government 3.12%
Education 1.76%
Retail 1.42%
Marketing 1.02%
Legal 0.74%
Manufacturing 0.17%

And finally, the average salary for Jobs citing Juniper over the last 3 months was £46,412.

I hope you find this as interesting as I did.

Thanks,

Andy

Quantix win CNA Mobility Solution of the Year 2008

Last Thursday night we scooped the CNA award for Best Mobility Solution delivered in 2008. This project was based on an integrated Juniper SA & Citrix implementaion for our great customer HCA Healthcare.

Please find the press release below.

Quantix Celebrates Awards Success
Specialist managed service provider wins Mobility Solution award with innovative HCA Healthcare solution

Quantix, a provider of enterprise applications, support and managed services, is celebrating its success in the Channel Network Awards (CNA), held at the prestigious Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London. Quantix won the Mobility Solution category for the innovative mobility solution it provided for HCA Healthcare and was also a finalist in the Business Awards Nottinghamshire 2008 in the Innovation Through Technology category for its Business Continuity Managed Service.

The CNA Awards recognise business solutions supplied to clients by the channel and the Mobility Solutions category looks for innovative and scalable solutions where a reseller has understood the specific needs of the client. Quantix provided HCA Healthcare with an innovative solution to allow secure access to proprietary and graphically intensive medical applications from any machine with a web browser. This presents medical personnel with the ability to gain access to x-ray images, patient records, and surgical modelling applications from any machine with a web browser in a secure manner. This would allow them to consult with clients and view images in a home environment but also provide a rapid response to consultation on urgent surgery.

“We’re thrilled to have won this award and to have had our solutions recognised in an event as prestigious as the CNA Awards,” said Quantix Managing Director Richard Salmon. “The work we have done for HCA Healthcare is a true testament to the need for mobile solutions and we look forward to providing further benefits to their mobility needs.”

The mobility solution deployed at HCA Healthcare reduces the waiting time for patients needing urgent surgery, as consultants can access vital information from any connected device, reducing the time needed to view any relevant radiography images.

“Winning at the Channel Network Awards has always been difficult and this year doubly so with the increased number of entries and the highest quality ever,” claimed John Chapman, judging organiser. “One of the toughest categories this year was for Mobility Solutions and for Quantix to come away as winner of this category is great testament to their ingenuity, skill and focus on what the customer was trying to achieve. The judges were particularly impressed with the way Quantix overcame some tough technology and operational issues”

Quantix’s RapidRecovery business continuity solution was also a finalist in the Innovation Through Technology category of the Business Awards Nottinghamshire 2008 which recognise business achievements and helps organisations celebrate their contribution to the regions’ economy.

Thanks,

Andy

Quantix's Managed Business Continuity Service hits the news..

Quantix's Managed Business Continuity Service, hits the press this week. Please find below one of the articles.


The FINANCIAL -- Quantix, a leading Managed Services providers, launches its new RapidRecovery Business Continuity solution.

Specifically designed by Quantix to offer customers a fully outsourced replicated environment, this service can drastically drive down the costs of Business Continuity. RapidRecovery provides not only a replicated standby site, but also day-to-day failover of servers in order to provide true business continuity.

RapidRecovery is all encompassing, comprising an Accelerated Private Data Link, the Rapid Recovery Platform, SecureConnect Service, Proactive Monitoring and the Quantix Managed Service Team. Other benefits include the recovery time of minutes from invocation, data recovery point of minutes, bare metal recovery, platform resiliency, snap shots, flexible storage and multi vendor support.

'Disaster recovery has typically been viewed as a form of insurance that carries a large annually recurring fee, with businesses only realising the real benefits of their investment when a disaster occurs,' explains Quantix's Managing Director, Richard Salmon. 'We are changing this perception by offering our customers the ability to use the same platform for development purposes and extended in-house maintenance, as well as acting as their disaster recovery service delivery infrastructure.'

Following the installation of RapidRecovery, businesses can benefit from flexible and secure access to the RapidRecovery platform and a low cost, secure solution that allows partners, customers or employees to work on applications, directories or extranets without client software having to be installed. It also had the added bonus of allowing an organisation to focus on their core business as Quantix manages the implementation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

'One of the biggest benefits of RapidRecovery is that it is fully managed by a team of more than 20 accredited engineers on a 24/7 basis,' adds Salmon. 'Our support team includes engineers and consultants who are specialists in their fields, so once RapidRecovery is installed, our customers have the reassurance that one of the leading support companies in the UK is managing and maintaining their system.'

If you would like further information our Business continuity/Disaster Recovery services, please visit our website or please do not hesitate to contact one of our engineers on 0115 983 6200.

Improve Performance of Oracle E-Business Suite 12.0

In the month that saw Larry Ellison award himself a 38% pay rise, Juniper confirm that the WXC appliances have been successfully been validated with Oracle(R) E-Business Suite 12.0. The Juniper WXC reduces the effects of WAN latency, network congestion and packet loss, providing distributed enterprises with superior end-to-end performance of Oracle applications.

Here's the rest of the announcement....

The Juniper Networks WXC is a best-in-class application acceleration platform that provides distributed enterprises with a cost-effective, scalable solution for accelerating applications over the WAN, helping businesses and government agencies deliver fast and consistent application response times, maximize WAN investments, and control and prioritize mission-critical applications and services. Validation testing through the Oracle Application Integration Architecture for Partners Initiative has shown that with the WXC platform inserted in-line between the client and application, Oracle E-Business Suite functionality is maintained.

'Juniper's WXC application acceleration platform has been tested and shows simplified business processes,' said Tom Herrmann, vice president, Oracle ISV Management and Programs. 'Validation with Oracle E-Business Suite enables our joint customers to overcome the obstacles posed by a distributed and extended enterprise, which depends on fast, reliable and secure communications across the WAN.'

Key test results revealed:

The WXC platform provides robust compression of HTML, HTTP/HTTPS and Oracle Forms traffic, reducing payload and improving response time.

The WXC delivers best-in-class quality of service (QoS), allowing prioritization and bandwidth allocation for mission-critical E-Business Suite applications over non-business critical traffic.

As both an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner and a Juniper Select Partner this is very welcome news.

Thanks,

Andy

Advanced EndPoint Defense is no more...until Juniper find a replacement!

Advanced EndPoint Defense was announced for the Juniper SSL VPN appliances in May 2005.

This was an initiative to integrate the technology Symantec had acquired through the WholeSecure acquisition earlier in 2005. The licence allowed customers to activate Malware protection on the SA appliances that was embedded into the IVE OS.

Unfortunately as Symantec have discontinued the product the OEM has now been disbanded, which has resulted in the AED partcodes being removed from the price list. At this moment in time Juniper haven't announced a replacement agreement, but I would expect this early 2009.

If you are already running AED and have any additional questions please mail me at andrews@quantix-uk.com

Thanks,

Andy

Introducing....The worlds fastest firewall

Juniper have released the SRX-series Services Gateway this week and are claiming the SRX 5800 is the fastest on the market. Here are the stats:

Firewall Performance - 120 Gbps

IDP Performance - 30 Gbps

Max Concurrent Sessions - 4 Million

Juniper Networks Dynamic Services Architecture designed to help high-performance businesses tightly align rapidly changing business requirements with technology investments to accelerate new service deployments.

The Dynamic Services Architecture is the foundation upon which the new Juniper Networks SRX dynamic services gateways are built.

• Juniper Networks SRX 5600 and 5800 series dynamic services gateway are a new category of extensible networking and security devices that set unprecedented benchmarks for high-performance networking
• Allows innovative businesses to deploy a high-performance network infrastructure that scales in both performance and security
• Delivers up to 120+ Gbps firewall throughput - an order of magnitude increase in processing speed compared to traditional firewalls and integrates Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDos/DoS), Network Address Translation (NAT), dynamic routing and Quality of Service (QoS) with additional services in the future to continuously deliver a superior user experience
• Offers the industry's first dual management engine and purpose-built, carrier-class terabit speed fabric, allowing for extensibility to deliver scalable performance based on a family of right-sized devices, services, processing and input/output modules
• Runs on Juniper's powerful JUNOS® software to enable businesses to deploy switching, routing and security infrastructure with the power of a single network operating system
• Reduces operational cost and complexity

Juniper's startegy is normally to release new products into the service provider space and then scale the technology down for the corporate market. I therefore wouldn't be too suprised to see a clutch of smaller SRX JUNOS firewalls be released at the end of the year.

If you would like more information on any of the Juniper product range then please visit the Quantix website or contact one of our Juniper coonsultants on 0115 983 6427

Thanks,

Andy

Juniper End of Life Announcements

All,

Just a quick post as I thought it would be a good idea to put together a list of End of.....announcements that you may need to be aware of in September.

Products going end of sales life:

J2300 Router .................................................30/9/08

EPIMS for the J series and NS Firewalls....30/9/08

Netscreen 204 and 208 Firewalls................30/9/08

Last Date to Convert Warranty:

DX 3200..........................................................15/9/08

The main things to note are really if for whatever reason you need to buy a 204/208 to provide a failover or want to get your DX3200 under next day support, then it needs actioning ASAP.

Thanks,

Andy

If you requre further information about the above end of life announcements or would like further information about any of the Juniper product range, then please do not hesitate to visit the Quantix website or call one of our Juniper Consultants on 0115 983 6247

Quantix Rapid Recovery Service Shortlisted for Innovation Award

Quantix have been nominated as a finalist for our Rapid Recovery Service in the "Innovation thorough Technology" category for the upcoming Chamber of Commerce award ceremony.

The service offered by Quantix is a fully managed disaster recovery process, 24x7x365 and provides the follwing benefits to clients:

- A Recovery Point Objective for data of up to 10 mins

- Instant Recovery Time

- A fixed monthly fee with no upfront kit costs

- Web based portal for user access in case of site evacuation

- Purpose built DataCentre

- Acclerated Private Link to Datacentre

- DR Server Load Balancing

- No need to licence applications on replicated DR servers

The infrastructure to deliver Rapid Recovery has been built using Juniper's High Perfromance Networking Technology to deliver a reactive and flexible service to our clients.

The latest features availabile in IVE OS 6.2

What's new in Juniper’s SSL VPN Version 6.2?

Today’s enterprise environment must support a broad range of devices while simultaneously allowing customers to make access control decisions on a wide variety of variables. Customers also want to cut down on the number of calls in to their helpdesks related to end user compliance issues. Version 6.2 greatly extends Juniper’s endpoint security offering in each of these areas as outlined below.

Endpoint Security - Automatic Remediation
Juniper Networks Secure Access v6.2 adds auto-remediation capabilities for non-compliant endpoints, enabling customers to remediate automatically those devices that do not meet policy prior to allowing them on to their network, minimizing support calls from users of non-compliant endpoints. Auto-remediation capabilities include:

• For all antivirus applications supported by Host Checker - Launching an antivirus process (if it’s not already running)
• Launching an antivirus scan
• Downloading a virus definition file – if the antivirus definition file isn’t recent enough
• Invoking real time protection – if it’s not already enabled
• Firewall auto-remediation for Microsoft Windows XP and 2000, and Microsoft Vista, turning the firewall on (if it is not running)
• Automatically modifying registry settings to pre-defined values as specified by policy for compliance

Customer Benefits
Enables the solution to auto-remediate endpoints before allowing them on to the network, minimizing the support calls from non-compliant users.

Endpoint Security - Pre-Defined Patch Management Checks

Juniper Networks Secure Access v6.2 extends endpoint assessment capabilities to now include in the appliances the ability to support pre-defined patch management checks. Pre-defined endpoint patch management checks include the ability to inspect the endpoint for targeted operating system or application hot fixes, enabling SSL VPN customers to easily define policies that can be directly linked to the presence or absence of specific hot fixes for defined operating systems and/or applications. The pre-defined patch management checks can also be performed according to the severity level of the vulnerability (critical, high, medium, low, etc.) and can be used to enforce access to certain roles or deny access to certain roles.

Customer Benefits
Enables customers to more easily define policies that ensure access control is tied to the presence or absence of certain critical hot fixes for operating systems and applications.

Endpoint Security - Pre-Defined Host Checker Policy Enhancements
Juniper Networks Secure Access v6.2 adds several enhancements to existing pre-defined host checker policies (in addition to automatic remediation and pre-defined patch checks). New features include:

• The ability to create policies that look for any endpoint security package from a specific vendor. Customers will be able to create policies that allow machines running any McAfee AV package, for example.
• The ability to create antivirus policies that look for virus definition files no older than X updates old, where X is anywhere from 1-10. This allows customers to create policies that are more flexible while still providing a reasonable level of security assurance.
  

Customer Benefits
Allows customers to maintain assurance of endpoint integrity while simultaneously providing more flexibility to end users.

Allows Secure Access devices to fit more seamless into existing security infrastructure.


Enterprise Mobility

The reality of today’s IT environment is that end users are increasingly demanding choice when it comes to the device(s) on which they do their work. This leaves IT managers with the responsibility to adapt and provide secure access from these varied platforms. Version 6.2 extends Juniper’s reach and allows the Secure Access platform to continue as the standard for remote access across many of the world’s top organizations.

• Endpoint Security/Enterprise Mobility – Windows Mobile Host Checker
• Host Checker on Windows Mobile – as mobile deployments grow, customers have begun to look to Juniper to provide endpoint security functionality for their Windows Mobile devices, enabling them to ensure a strong endpoint security posture, similar to what is provided on traditional endpoints. Version 6.2 adds Host Checker for the supported Windows Mobile platforms.

Customer Benefits
Allows customers to ensure the same integrity verification capabilities for their mobile devices that they have deployed on their traditional devices.

Enterprise Mobility - Clientless ActiveSync on Windows Mobile
The Clientless ActiveSync feature provides customers with a secure connection from a Windows Mobile device to the Exchange server with no client installation on the device. This allows customers that only wish to synchronize email a means to do so without requiring the Windows

Secure Application Manager client on the mobile device.

Customer Benefits
Allows customers to synchronize their email without authenticating to the SSL VPN device via a client such as WSAM or via the web browser, greatly simplifying the end user experience.

Enterprise Mobility - Extended Support for Windows Mobile
Version 6.2 extends Juniper’s support for Windows Mobile devices with several new features.
Windows Mobile 6.0 support – as new versions of Windows Mobile have been made available, Juniper has provided support across both the clientless access method, as well as WSAM.

Version 6.2 adds support for Windows Mobile 6.0.
Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition – Version 6.2 extends supported Windows Mobile platforms from the PDA edition to also include the Smartphone form factor.

Customer Benefits
Provides freedom for end users to purchase Windows Mobile devices running the latest OS versions and form factors, while still providing a secure connection to the corporate network.

Enterprise Mobility - JSAM and Core Access Support for Solaris 10
Solaris 10 has been added as an additional supported platform for both the JSAM and the Core Clientless access methods.

Customer Benefits
Further solidifies the Secure Access platform as the standard for remote access across an entire enterprise, regardless of the types of devices that must be supported.

Network Connect – As organizations continue to replace their outdated IPSec VPN remote access gateways with the Juniper SSL VPN solution, Network Connect becomes a more popular option across these deployments. Version 6.2 responds to this popularity with several features that increase deployment flexibility and puts greater control over remote access security and performance in the hands of the administrator.

Network Connect – Windows Vista Credential Provider
With the introduction of Windows Vista, Microsoft has replaced its GINA functionality with a new feature known as Credential Provider. In the 6.2 release, Juniper Networks has Credential Provider functionality for Network Connect, providing a mechanism for creating a Network Connect tunnel when the user logs in to their endpoint. The Network Connect Credential Provider has been implemented as a Pre-Logon Access Provider (PLAP). Wherever possible, NC will attempt to provide Single Sign-On by using the same credentials provided for NC to attempt domain authentication.

Customer Benefits
Allows end users to connect to the corporate network via Network Connect while they are logging on to their machine.

Allows a single set of credentials to be submitted for both SSL VPN authentication as well as machine/domain authentication.
onnect.

Network Connect – Bandwidth Management
Bandwidth management is the ability to control the rate of traffic sent or received on a network interface. It is performed by policing (discarding excess packets) and can be used to ensure that a peer is allocated a specified amount of bandwidth. Traffic that is less than or equal to the specified rate is guaranteed to be sent, whereas traffic that exceeds the rate may be dropped or delayed. Bandwidth management is configured per-role, per-IVS, and/or per-interface, with the ability to control both guaranteed minimum, as well as configured maximum bandwidth.

Customer Benefits
Allows customers to manage the throughput of remote access connections, either for specific groups of users or across their entire Secure Access deployment, providing an additional level of service assurance across their u

Network Connect – Windows Client Reconnect Behavior
This new feature will allow the Network Connect client to seamlessly recover from disconnect events. If Windows NC is disconnected for any reason other than session timeout or Secure Access session termination, the client will continuously attempt to reconnect until a network connection is established, rather than timing out. The system tray icon will indicate that NC is attempting to reconnect, but there will be no other prompts to the end user. During this time, the user can Exit or Sign out of NC to stop the client from reconnecting.

Customer Benefits
Ensures a seamless end user experience with improved response to network conditions and other network connectivity disruptions.

Network Connect – 256-bit AES Support
Network Connect now supports 256-bit AES encryption, completing support for this level of encryption across the SSL VPN access methods.

Customer Benefits
Allows security sensitive customers to increase the encryption levels used for their remote access connections.

Terminal Services - Citrix Published Application Support
Version 6.2 expands support for Citrix Terminal Services by allowing customers to display Citrix Presentation Server published applications directly to end users on the SSL VPN bookmark page. This enhancement makes it easier for end users to see exactly which applications they can access through their remote access session directly from their home page, regardless of whether those applications are accessed through Citrix or accessed directly.

Customer Benefits
Improves the end user experience by displaying all application bookmarks on a single screen.
Saves on administration time by minimizing the task of configuring Citrix application bookmarks directly on the SSL VPN, as those bookmarks are pulled directly from Presentation Server.

Terminal Services - Windows Server 2008 Support
In version 6.2, Juniper has added support for the latest version of Terminal Services, running on Windows Server 2008 (Codename: Longhorn).

Customer Benefits
Allows customers to test or rollout the latest version of Microsoft’s Terminal Services functionality as soon as possible, providing deployment flexibility.

Enables RemoteApp support to run seamless windows of applications when the client is running RDP 6.0 (or higher).

Streamlined Management - XML Import/Export and Push Configuration
Version 6.2 adds additional functionality to the existing XML Import/Export and Push Configuration features, completing support for all SSL VPN policies. Additionally, these functions have been improved to minimize restarts that can result in service impact.

Customer Benefits
Allows administrators further granularity in deciding which policies to synchronize between disparate devices or clusters.

Allows administrators to make configuration changes via XML Import and Push Config without worrying about service restarts, allowing greater management flexibility without any user impact.

Streamlined Management - IVS Shared Authentication Services
This feature allows Instant Virtual Systems (IVS) customers to provide access to authentication services that can be shared across virtual systems. This enhancement allows the customer to place the authentication service on a particular VLAN and share that VLAN across all IVS on a given system or cluster.

Customer Benefits
Allows Service Providers to host shared authentication services, such as RADIUS, in their networks as an additional value added service for each of their IVS/Shared Network-based SSL VPN services customers.
Allows enterprises utilizing IVS the ability to share a single authentication infrastructure across their entire user population.
.
Streamlined Management – RADIUS Accounting NC Assigned IP Address
This enhancement allows customers the ability to send the IP address assigned by Network Connect, in addition to the user’s source IP, to a RADIUS accounting server for auditing and billing purposes.

Customer Benefits
Allows customers a better view into the activities performed by users on their network when connected via Network Connect, aiding in auditing and billing.



If you have any questions regarding any of the Juniper products, then please visit the Quantix website or call 0115 983 6200 to speak to one of our Juniper Consultants.

Thanks,

Gav

Considering Citrix?

Historically if an organisation wanted to securely publish internal applications to a remote workforce via the web, then Citrix (in it's various guises) was seen as the only viable option.
With this though came the often experienced frustrations, namely, cost (Citrix is not cheap), compatibility, administration and printing...I'm sure those of you who are reading this are shuddering at those two words... Citrix & Printing....

Anyway, now there is an alternative... Many of you may have either read about or have tested the new Terminal services offered within Windows 2008. The most intriguing element being the new RemoteApp functionality. In a nutshell RemtoeApp is the ability to publish applications in a seamless terminal service window. To compliment this, new to Windows 2008 is the ability to deploy these remote applications via a web portal or buy distributing .msi files via AD.

This new functionality is a direct attack by Microsoft on the remote app publication space that has previously been dominated by Citrix. An judging by the results, it may well be successful.

Taking the above one step further is the ability to publish these remote applications securely over the web. This previously was carried out using Citrix Nfuse, using SSL as the means of encryption.

But, with the recent release of version 6.2 of the Juniper SSL VPN software with native support Windows 2008 Terminal Services and more importantly the RemoteApp functionality this has finally created a direct alternative to Citrix Presentation server.

Using the Juniper SSL VPN to 'front end' Windows 2008 Terminal Services not only provides a more scalable and secure alternative to Citrix, but it does it at a fraction of the cost and with out the inherent frustrations.

For more information about the Juniper SSL VPN go to: http://www.quantix-uk.com/SSLVPN.aspx or feel free to contact one of our Juniper Consultants on 0115 983 6200

Juniper NSM will now manage your SSL VPN device!

Juniper have released an upgrade to their NSM plaform which will also manage your SA appliances. In addition to Juniper Networks firewall/VPN and IDP devices, you can manage the following device families through NSM:

• Devices running JUNOS software with enhanced services for J-series routers and clusters. Supported devices include Juniper Networks J2320, J2350, J4320, J4350, J6320, and J6350 routers running JUNOS software with enhanced services 9.0 and 9.1.
• EX-series switches, including virtual chassis configurations.
• Secure Access SSL VPN series devices (SA) and clusters.
  

Supported devices include Juniper Networks Secure Access 2000, 2500, 4000, 4000 (FIPS), 4500, 6000, 6000 (FIPS), and 6500 devices running SA Release 6.3. Important Note: The management for Secure Access family of devices will be available with SSL release 6.3.

• United Access Control (UAC) Infranet Controller devices (IC) and clusters. Supported devices include Juniper Networks Infranet Controller 4000, 4500, 6000, and 6500 devices running Infranet Controller Release 2.2.

For more information on the above or any products from the Juniper Range, Please feel free to visit the Quantix website or contact one of our Juniper consultants on 0115 983 6200

Juniper WXOS 5.5.4 Software Release Notification

View Bulletin SRN-2008-07-034

Title WXOS 5.5.4 Software Release Notification Products Affected WX-100 WXC-100, WX-15, WX-20, WX-50/55, WX-60, WXC-250, WXC-500, WXC-590 Platforms Affected WXC Platforms WX Platforms WXOS 5.x Revision Number 1 Issue Date 2008-07-31

SRN Description : This bulletin announces the release of WXOS 5.5.4 Solution: WXOS 5.5.4 is a maintenance release for the WAN Acceleration devices. Please refer to the Release Notes for details. EOL Notice: Please note that the release of this software version may trigger the End of Life of an older version. Please check Junipers website to see if the software version that you are running is affected. If you require further information on any products from the Juniper range, then please feel free to visit the Quantix website or call on one of our Juniper Consultants on 0115 983 6200.

University of Exeter Deploy Juniper EX Switches

Juniper Networks have announced their first real publishable major UK switch win at the University of Exeter....

The University of Exeter, one of the U.K.'s leading research universities, has deployed a comprehensive network infrastructure solution from Juniper Networks. As a key element of its campus-wide infrastructure upgrade, the University deployed the EX-series Ethernet Switches as well as the Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet Services Routers, Integrated Security Gateway (ISG) firewall/VPN/intrusion prevention platforms and Secure Access SSL VPN platforms. The University is building its new high-performance network to provide additional services to users, and as part of its strategic goal to move from 13th in the UK to the top ten universities.

"Our goal is to sustain leading-edge research capabilities, provide excellent networking facilities for our 14,000 students and create a future-proof, cost-effective platform for growth. To achieve this, Exeter needed a single network infrastructure to deliver a wide range of bandwidth-rich applications without compromise," said Roger Snelling, Head of Networks at The University of Exeter. "The proven technology of Juniper's JUNOS software, a single-source network operating system, combined with the EX-series virtual chassis capability and its ease of integration with other technologies will enable Exeter to deliver high-performance networking to its users."

The University of Exeter needs to support bandwidth-intensive, quality-dependent video and audio conferencing applications as well as the ability to access and move large volumes of data across its network. Prioritizing these applications over less demanding traffic, such as email and Internet surfing, helps to maintain service quality over a single converged network. The network infrastructure created by the Juniper Networks MX-series and the EX-series running on JUNOS software, simplifies management and minimizes operational cost, enabling Exeter to provide gigabit-per-second links to the edge of its network.

The University also needs to balance the performance of converged, mixed-priority services with a large, frequently changing user population who access the network using a diverse range of unmanaged devices. The Juniper Networks ISG platform was selected to protect the network's core from network- and application-level attacks while maintaining high-performance throughput for legitimate data. Ideally suited for securing bandwidth-rich and latency-sensitive applications, ISG can be equipped with full intrusion detection and prevention capability with the optional IDP security modules. The Juniper Networks Secure Access SSL VPN platform enables remote users to gain secure access to the network, with Web browser-based functionality to enable immediate roll-out for new users. The Secure Access SSL VPN also checks user identity and security status of device (e.g. antivirus, personal firewall) before network access is granted, and dynamically during each session.

"Since they began shipping globally in March 2008, the EX-series Ethernet Switches are being selected by high-performance organizations such as The University of Exeter, to enable a new networking paradigm," said Gert-Jan Schenk, senior vice president of operations, EMEA, Juniper Networks. "It is also a great example of how the EX-series complements Juniper's existing portfolio, leveraging the openness and simplicity of a single network operating system, to create a fast, reliable, secure solution at scale."

Higher Education have always been good adopters for technology advancements, so the momentum will undoubtedly continue.

Quantix has a very wide range of Juniper products and has helped many public sector organisations with their networking solutions. If you would like more information or discuss how Quantix can help your organisation, please do not hesitate to contact us on: 0115 983 6200 or please visit our website.

Release of Juniper ScreenOS 6.0.0r6

View Bulletin SRN-2008-07-023

Title ScreenOS 6.0.0r6 Software Release Notification Products Affected SSG5, SSG20, SSG140, SSG320M, SSG350M, SSG520/SSG520M, SSG550/SSG550M, ISG1000, ISG1000IDP, ISG2000, ISG2000-IDP, NS5000-MGT2 w/SPM2(8G2, 2XGE) Platforms Affected SSG Series ScreenOS 6.x ScreenOS 6.x with IDP NetScreen Firewall/VPN Revision Number 1

SRN Description : This bulletin announces the release of ScreenOS 6.0.0r6. Solution: ScreenOS 6.0.0r6 is a maintenance release for the Juniper Firewall/IPSec VPN devices. Please refer to the Release Notes for details. EOL Notice: Please note that the release of this software version may trigger the End of Life of an older version. Please check the Juniper web page to see if the software version that you are running is affected.

Quantix Launch Government Connect Initiative with Juniper Networks

Having many Public Sector clients all looking to connect to the GovConnect network has left us peppered with requests for information and pricing around IDP and new firewalls.

As a result of the demand, we have approached Juniper Networks as market leaders in this area to put together several discounted offers and bundles which will fit the requirements for the range of GCSx connections. These offers are available only to organisations connecting to the GovConnect network and are only available through Quantix, due to our part funding.

Products covered under this offer include;

Bundle 1: IDP 75 & SSG 320

Bundle 2 : IDP 250 & SSG 550

IDP 75, IDP 250, IDP 800, SSG 20, SSG 140, SSG 320, SSG 350, SSG 520 & SSG 550

Quantix are a tier one select partner with Juniper Networks. Junipers EAL4 certified firewalls, along with their Intrusion Detection and Prevention solutions can help to meet the standards required.

If you require assistance with IDP solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us: 0115 983 6200 or please visit the Quantix website.

Thanks,

Andy

Juniper EX 4200 Switch Aces Network World Test

Extracts from Network World Article, 14/7/08; by David Newman



"Cisco take note: Juniper's new EX 4200 switch not only fills a hole in a leading competitor's product line, but also represents a credible alternative for enterprise access switching.

In Network World's exclusive Clear Choice test, we subjected the EX 4200-48T switch to the same rigorous battery of benchmarks we used to assess seven other vendors' 10G Ethernet access switches earlier this year.

The verdict: This is one fast box. The EX 4200 delivered line-rate throughput in every case, the only switch we've tested this year to do so. What's more, 10G Ethernet latency is the lowest we've ever measured. We also were impressed by the EX 4200's feature set and powerful JUNOS command-line interface (CLI).

Other highlights of the report include:

With Juniper's EX 4200, there's no need to say "nearly". Even under the heaviest loads our Spirent TestCenter traffic generator threw at it, the switch delivered line-rate throughput in every single unicast and multicast test, both in layer-2 and layer-3 configurations. No other switch did that.

Latency – often a more important metric than throughput, especially for time-sensitive voice and video traffic – was low and consistent across all tests. Measured at line rate, the Juniper switch delayed 64-byte frames across 10G Ethernet links for an average of 1.96 microsec and a maximum of 2.01 microsec.

Those are the lowest latencies we've ever recorded in an Ethernet switch. In fact, even the maximum latency of the EX 4200 is less than the lowest average result we measured in the previous round of tests."

You can find the full testing report on the Network World Website.

To see a full range of Juniper products please visit Juniper Technology.

Juniper Netscreen 5GT End of Life Announcement

The Juniper Netscreen 5GT is now EOL. The EOL announcement for these products is effective 30-June-2008 with a last order date of 31-December- 2008. Effective 1-January-2009, the above products will be removed from the price list and will no longer be orderable.

The 5GT will continue to be supported until 31/12/2013, however I would encourage customers to make sure any unsupported units are fully under maintenance, as Juniper will not allow any reinstatements after 31/12/09.

The natural replacement for this product is the Juniper SSG 5 & 20 appliances. Please contact your account manager on 0870 240 6565 if you have any questions.

Andy

Juniper Application Acceleration Case Study

July Product Releases

Just a quick post to update you on the new Juniper product releases for July.

IDP 800 £17,258 RRP (1 Gbps throughput, 500,000 sessions)

Infranet Controller 4500 £5,076 RRP
Infranet Controller 6500 £7,614 RRP

WXC 1800 with 512k licence £2,530 RRP!!
WXC 1800 with 2 Mb licence £5,418 RRP

Thanks,

Andy

Quantix & Juniper in the news

Here's a quick post of a story in the press.

Juniper changes welcomed

By Alex Scroxton

25 June 2008

Juniper Networks has revealed its move into the enterprise switching sector paid off during the first quarter of its fiscal 2008. Juniper’s UK revenues over the last three months were up 26 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.

Globally, Juniper made sales of $822.9m, up 31 per cent on Q1 ’07, with EMEA accounting for just over 30 per cent of its sales.

The launch of an enterprise switch portfolio by Juniper back in February was welcomed partly as a fresh challenge to Cisco, and partly because it gave partners the ability to sell end-to-end solutions.

Juniper has now upped the ante again with the expansion of its J-Care technical services package to include a new set of Advanced Insight Solutions (AIS) a family of performance-enhancing services that enable remote, proactive network monitoring by Juniper partners using intelligence built into Juniper’s JUNOS 9.0 software

This comes just a fortnight after Cisco formally unveiled its own Smart Care monitoring service.

Andrew Slater, Juniper sales boss at Notts-based Quantix, saw the expansion in the firm’s services less as a direct attack on Cisco’s business, and more as an attempt to become a best-of-breed provider.

”They’re trying to get into the top quadrants in the Gartner reports, and want to become a master of various key technology areas,” he said.

“We’re dovetailing their services into our own so we can brand it as Quantix and foster a closer relationship at a technological level,” he added.

Other partners saw the service as more evidence of a changing attitude to the channel.

“Juniper wasn’t very partner-centric in the past. They reminded me of organisations like Cisco or IBM in the bad old days,” said one reseller.

“They were covetous about their IP, and not keen on partners doing maintenance,” he added.

Juniper was unavailable for comment.

New WXC Appliances

Just a quick update to keep you posted in line with the release of the new WXC appliances. The new appliances are:

WXC 2600 - Scales to 8mb (RRP £6,628 inc 2 Mb licence)
WXC 3400 - Scales to 45mb (RRP £13,366 inc 10 Mb licence)

These appliances should have a big impact on the cost of small to midsized WAN optimisation projects. Typically Juniper product evolution within ranges is to release new appliances which deliver more for less and these certainly follow that route. Historically to get a WXC 590 to 10Mb it would have cost £20,585, so basically Juniper have thrown in the cost of upgrading from 2mb>10Mb FOC with the base edition of the 3400.

I also personally like the WXC PIM which fits into the J series router, as it means that on an MPLS/Private network you have one device doing the routing and acceleration. The new releases in this area mean that you can get a 4Mb PIM for under £5k, which makes it great for links to your DR centre.

Thanks,

Andy

For More information please visit: http://www.quantix-uk.com

Free Juniper SA Licences

All,

Just a quick tip if you are running a SA 2000, SA 4000 or SA 6000 appliance. Juniper have just released 3 new SA platforms namely the 2500, 4500 and 6500 and all these now include SAM, Network Connect and Advanced licences as part of the base appliance. The price of the base appliance has risen slightly to take account of these extra features.

However, as the code revision is the same if you upgrade one of the old platforms (2000, 4000 & 6000) to 6.1 software, you will find all this new functionality FOC.

Cheers,

Andy

For more information please visit: http://www.quantix-uk.com/junipertechnology.aspx