Juniper Networks Doubles SRX5800 Firewall Speed
Juniper Networks today unveiled new hardware for its SRX5800 Services Gateway that doubles the device's available Internet Mix (IMIX) firewall throughput to 2 terabits per second (Tbps) and addresses enterprises' need to manage bandwidth-hungry and unpredictable network environment.
Scheduled to ship in the first half of this year, the new hardware includes third-generation input/output cards (IOC3); enhanced mid-plane chassis, and third-generation system boards (SCB3), according to the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer. Each IOC3 card supports two packet forwarding engines (PFE), a high-configuration engine of 2x 100GbW and 4x 10Gbe high-speed interfaces, Juniper added. It also provides 240Gbps bandwidth and two times the bandwidth of the model's previous card.
"By 2020, there's going to be 7.6 billion Internet users. Throughput performance used to not be a concern but will be an increasing concern going forward," Jennifer Blatnik, vice president of cloud marketing at Juniper Networks told Enterprise Technology. "There's also, the increasing security threat companies face going forward. Companies are engaged in building high-performance computing networks -- Web 2.0 companies or financial firms with bills of transactions going through or mobile service providers -- all these customers do need a firewall with unparalleled performance."
MCB Bank, for example, implemented the SRX Series in its datacenter to protect customers' sensitive information from threats while simultaneously delivering new services securely and rapidly, said CIO Imtiaz Mahmood, in a statement. As a result, the bank saw optimization of operations and simplified systems management, he said.
Although initial customers will come from verticals that have immediate high performance and security needs, Juniper predicts the SRX5800 will earn horizontal appeal, said Blatnik. In some cases, for example, the gateway could replace multiple devices, simplifying management and enhancing performance, she said.
"It depends on how old your network deployment is. If you started deploying security devices du jour, even in the last five years you might have put a load-balancer next to a firewall, you could possibly have a chain of security devices. With this high performance services gateway, you wouldn't need all of these devices," Blatnik said. "Not only do we have the capabilities of a firewall and a next-generation firewall, there's no need for a load balancer. There's the ability to collapse three devices into one."
IT departments can control SRX5800 using Juniper's Spotlight Secure threat intelligence platform that amasses threat feeds from multiple sources to provide consolidated intelligence to the company's SRX Series Services Gateways across an organization. The customizable solution allows organizations to import third-party data, such as the European Union's threat intelligence updates, said Blatnik, and can be applied across all Juniper's hardware.
"At ESDS Software, we have strict requirements for securing our data centers and cloud environments from threats. We needed a solution that would keep us protected, but not sacrifice the speed of our network and ensure efficient business operations. Juniper Networks’ SRX has allowed us to deliver secure applications quickly to our customers and it provides us with the flexibility needed for cloud hosting," said Piyush Somani, managing director, ESDS Software, in a statement. "The SRX helps us meet our customer requirements and allows us to operate more effectively, which gives us a competitive edge against other cloud hosting providers in our space."
