Juniper Networks will go SONiC across its data center switches

Juniper Networks announced native integration of its QFX and PTX data center switches with SONiC to better serve hyperscale data center customers.

Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) originated with Microsoft three years ago as a means to improve network switch operations. Microsoft subsequently contributed SONiC into the Open Compute Project (OCP) in 2016 to further its development and reach. In addition to Microsoft and OCP, SONiC is also supported by LinkedIn, Alibaba and Tencent.

Juniper rival Cisco also supports SONiC while Facebook worked with Edgecore to develop a new switch, which is called Minipack, that uses SONiC for 100G and 400G networking.

RELATED: Big Switch tees up SONiC demo with Open Network Linux at OCP Summit

Juniper plans to have SONiC available across its QFX and PTX data center switches in the second half of this year. By adding SONiC to its data center switches, Juniper is enabling a simplified and automated switch management platform for its cloud and service provider customers.

Among other benefits, Juniper said that native SONiC integration would provide the networking community and cloud providers with the latest routing, switching and analytics solutions from Juniper.

“The integration of Juniper’s platforms with SONiC shows the company’s commitment to open networking and is an important step in our mission to revolutionize networking for today and into the future, said Microsoft's Yousef Khalidi, CVP, Azure Networking, in a prepared statement. "Customers will be able to take advantage of this simplified and automated switch management platform, enhanced by rich routing and deep telemetry innovations.”

Juniper's cloud revenues have been problematic over the past year or so. In its fourth quarter earnings call in January, Juniper reported that its cloud revenues decreased 8% year over year due to slower deployments by the company's cloud customers.

In November, Juniper boosted its cloud capabilities, by buying enterprise cloud storage vendor HTBASE for an undisclosed sum. HTBASE's software-defined enterprise multicloud storage platform was folded into Juniper's Contrail Enterprise Multicloud division.

In January, IBM Services announced that it had signed a seven-year, $325 million agreement with Juniper Networks to help Juniper better manage its IT services and give it a quicker on-ramp to a cloud-native architecture.