Juniper Networks, Ruckus Wireless Partner to Bring Open Network Solutions to Enterprise

Juniper Networks and Ruckus Wireless have announced a new technology alliance to deliver open, wired and wireless networking solutions for enterprise, government and education customer segments.

The companies will work to deliver a unified wired and wireless solution, as well as collaborate on global go-to-market opportunities to deliver proven, carrier-class network performance, resiliency and scale to mid-size and large enterprise customers.

Gartner predicts that end-user spending on enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) equipment will grow from $5.3 billion in 2015 to $7.8 billion worldwide in 2019. Ruckus and Juniper Networks believe this increase is being driven largely by an influx of new WiFi-enabled devices and cloud applications being brought into the workplace by employees. This puts new levels of performance and bandwidth pressure on the campus network infrastructure, from WiFi access points to the network core, creating the need for a flexible, secure and integrated wired and wireless network solution.

With a strong heritage of delivering open, standards-based and carrier-grade solutions, Juniper Networks and Ruckus are well equipped to meet and exceed the unique demands on the enterprise campus network. The goal of this technology alliance is to deliver network flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership for its joint customers.

· Best-in-Class Performance and Scale: Combining Juniper Networks® EX Series Ethernet Switches with Ruckus ZoneFlex access points and SmartZone (SZ) Wi-Fi management platform will deliver carrier-class networking solutions to various enterprise environments and enable easy network expansion as business demands grow.

· Simplified, Automated and Secure Network Management: Both Ruckus Wireless 3+1 SmartZone clustering and Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology reduce the number of logical wired and wireless devices for management and automation, as well as ensure maximum availability. Juniper Networks Junos® Space Network Director provides visibility and management of the switching infrastructure to easily manage growing networks and new service categories. Comprehensive security will be achieved with 802.1x network access control on both Ruckus Smart WiFi and Juniper Networks EX Series Switches. Ruckus will deliver simple, secure BYOD provisioning and onboarding, while the Juniper Networks SRX Series Services Gateways will deliver next-generation firewall capabilities.

· Open-Standards Based Solutions: Building on Juniper’s Open Converged Framework, the planned alliance is based on open, standards-based hardware and software products from both Juniper Networks and Ruckus, ensuring investment protection for customers as their wired and wireless network demands evolve.

“Enterprises around the world are being challenged to accommodate the use of more and more mobile devices and applications, while still maintaining a secure, high-performance operating environment. Juniper Networks provides the wired infrastructure critical for serving as the backbone for the Smart WiFi networks we deliver. This ‘no-compromise’ partnership offers the value and ROI that businesses are looking for, with the performance, flexibility and scalability they demand,” explains, Dan Rabinovitsj, chief operating officer, Ruckus Wireless.

“The network infrastructure of our enterprise customers is experiencing incredible performance pressure due to the influx of mobile devices in the workplace connecting to mission-critical apps and to content in the cloud. Building on Juniper’s Open Converged Framework, teaming with Ruckus ensures carrier-grade levels of scale and performance through our interoperable wired and wireless solutions to solve the WiFi capacity and coverage challenges that our enterprise customers face.” said, Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager, Juniper Development and Innovation, Juniper Networks.