Juniper licences Junos OS to Blade network technologies
Data centre networking vendor Blade Network Technologies has licensed Juniper Networks’ Junos operating system to Blade for the development of blade server switches. Under the agreement, Blade will be the exclusive global supplier of Junos-based blade server switches to the world’s leading server manufacturers.
Blade is also to offer its value-added data centre features on these new Junos-enabled blade server switches, such as network-aware VMready virtualisation, AMP Active Multi Pathing technology, HotLinks for high availability, and other data centre functions, including vNIC (Virtual Network Interface Card), OFM (Open Fabric Manager) and Advanced OFM.
Blade’s new Junos-based switches will complement its line of Blade OS-based blade server switches, which have approximately seven million ports deployed worldwide making them the world’s most deployed brand of blade server switches. Blade OS Ethernet switches are currently installed at over 9,000 customers around the world through the company’s partnerships with leading blade server manufacturers.
“This is the first ever licensing of the Junos operating system, proving our commitment to creating an open ecosystem of innovation to provide customers with choice and flexibility,” said Kevin Johnson, chief executive officer, Juniper Networks. “By licensing our Junos to market leader Blade, we are helping customers achieve intelligence across the network, which ultimately reduces cost, minimises complexity and maximises user experience.”
Vikram Mehta, president and CEO, Blade commented, “This game changing partnership provides data centre customers with a very attractive alternative to proprietary offerings. It means another ‘doubling down’ on Blade’s innovation investments as we offer customers a choice of operating systems and a common set of data centre optimisations for both operating systems.”
Analysts have welcomed the move. In a research note, Eve Griliches at IDC, praised the move as ‘something no router vendor has ever done before’. “In the past, if a service provider wanted to offer a new service, like anti-virus protection, they would have to add a specific hardware blade into the router, which only works on one anti-virus application. Not only is the provider dependent on the investment of the blade cost, but also the choice the router vendor made for the anti-virus application is unchangeable.”
Griliches gave a further example of the benefits.
“Should a major security or delivery platform application come to market, in most cases providers would have to wait until the vendors support one form of it, release it in software, and put it on a hardware blade,” she added. “In this case, all that’s needed is the API from Juniper, a partner for the application, and a new service can be offered.”