BT, a leading global service provider, has teamed up with Juniper Networks to deploy an innovative open, software-defined networking (SDN), switching, and firewall solutions for its network cloud.
This strategic collaboration enables BT to leverage Juniper’s SDN platform, automating the creation and management of its OpenStack-based telco cloud. The platform provides hybrid SDN orchestration and centralized control of virtual switching, routing, and security.
The heart of BT’s network cloud is powered by Juniper’s QFX Series Switches, known for their high-performance and high-availability fabric. This infrastructure, comprised of over 1,000 Juniper QFX Series Switches and 2,000 Juniper vRouters, forms the largest container-based cloud infrastructure globally and is still rapidly expanding.
The cloud-native platform is deployed across multiple locations in the United Kingdom, following a distributed architecture that allows seamless scalability alongside demand. This approach also ensures services are brought closer to end-users compared to traditional, centralized deployments.
A major highlight of the collaboration lies in Juniper’s vSRX Virtual Firewalls, which play a critical role in protecting and securing the data center traffic. Additionally, vSRX provides a network address translation capability, a feature that was previously unavailable for one of BT’s application providers to deliver in software.
BT’s decision to select Juniper as its partner stems from Juniper’s engineering excellence and its ability to provide an end-to-end network solution. The comprehensive offering includes hardware, software, and tools that integrate seamlessly with BT’s complete cloud stack, making it an ideal choice for the project.
Through the implementation of Juniper’s professional services, BT has completed the ambitious project on time, ensuring that the challenging service level, availability, and performance targets for BT’s applications are met with precision.
The partnership between BT and Juniper represents a significant milestone in the evolution of cloud infrastructure, demonstrating the power of software-defined networking and containerized applications in delivering enhanced performance and efficiency for telecommunications services.
“Our work with partners such as Juniper is helping to ensure that our infrastructure, network and services are agile, secure and resilient for the long term,” said Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT Group.
“BT can respond to the demands of the next chapter of digital transformation at scale whilst leveraging the power of the network to enable new digital services for BT’s customers, fully supported by a cloud-native architecture enabling security, automation, scale and agility,” Raj Yavatkar, Chief Technology Officer, Juniper Networks, said.
