Distributed Enterprise Connectivity Architecture Design Considerations
This topic discusses how the Juniper Networks enterprise reference architecture applies to distributed enterprises and all its major locations such as the campus, branch offices, and data centers.
Figure 1 depicts a high-level view of Juniper Networks distributed enterprise connectivity architecture. This topic presents the design details that are specific to each of the redundancy levels and technologies covering all the branch office profiles.
Network infrastructure at branch offices normally contains a relatively small amount of computing resources when compared to central facilities or headquarters. Branch offices typically are located where customer interactions occur, which means there is increased demand for supporting applications and assuring application performance, and increased demand for security and availability. Because remote locations usually lack the presence of local IT staff, the equipment hosted at these facilities must not only be cost effective, feature-rich, and highly reliable, but must also offer centralized management capabilities.
Juniper Networks offers a set of compelling solutions to meet the needs of distributed enterprise deployments. The distributed enterprise connectivity architecture addresses the concerns of enterprises in each of the areas of connectivity, security, end-user performance, visibility, and manageability. Enterprises require a completely new approach in branch office networking to avoid services disruption, which also impairs productivity in the branches and in turn negatively impacts business. These requirements define a new product category known as services gateways, which simplifies branch networking and lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) by unifying multiple services such as security, voice, data, and access servers into one remotely manageable platform.
The Juniper Networks enterprise reference architecture builds a model that addresses the needs of the enterprises as well as the number of users at a particular branch office location. Branch office architectures are classified into three common profiles, which is small office home office (SOHO), remote office, and medium-to-large branch office. The different branch design profiles that use Juniper Networks® SRX Series Services Gateways and run the Junos® operating system (Junos OS) address the requirements of today’s distributed enterprise locations. This enables businesses to gain efficiencies in capital and operational expenses.
The designs outlined in this topic are built to address the different levels of high availability required for different branch profiles and the current as well as future demands of high-performance businesses. Finally, implementing these designs using all the branch platforms, including services gateways and local switches running Junos OS, on all the branch network elements allows enterprises to simplify the branch office networking infrastructure, provide unified network management, and realize significant savings in operational expenditures.