A recent report from Seattle-based Lake Partners Strategy Consultants looked at the role that network operating systems play in network operations. It found that while all network operating systems had some features and functionality that made them unique, Juniper’s JUNOS software scored consistently highly in terms of saving time and creating operational efficiency.
The study carried out interviews with 122 network operations team leaders regarding daily operations and the hardware currently deployed in their network. Respondents were asked to describe ways that their operating system affected their network. Reliability, flexibility and efficiency emerged as the most critical factors.
Reliability
Reliability is seen as the ability to maintain high uptime. Customers identified five features of their operating system that contributed the most to high reliability: modular architecture, independent control and forwarding planes, redundancy, commit check functions, and advanced troubleshooting tools. Network reliability is becoming even more important as enterprise businesses and service providers carry multiple high-demand services, such as voice, streaming video, and business VPN services.
Lake Partners measured reliability based on three factors: time spent troubleshooting, frequency of unplanned events, and duration of unplanned events. Compared to other vendor solutions, Juniper customers reported that JUNOS software reduced the frequency of unplanned events by an average of 24% and made unplanned events an average of 30% shorter.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to add infrastructure and new services easily without loss of network stability or reliability. Just as increased congestion necessitates network reliability, it also makes flexibility critical to network success. As the use of high-demand services continues to grow, enterprises and service providers alike will need to expand the capabilities of their networks to absorb increased traffic and eliminate bandwidth congestion. Customers cite several means by which operating systems allow for flexibility: interoperability, modularity, separation of the control and forwarding planes, multiple supported IP protocols, and a consistent operating system. Compared to other vendor offerings, Juniper takes an average of 12% less time to deploy at the core and an average of 40% less at the edge. Furthermore, Juniper customers report that JUNOS software reduces the time it takes to add routers or services to the network by an average of 29% and 28% respectively.
Operational efficiency
Creating operational efficiency means that network operations teams spend less time on frequent system maintenance, such as monitoring and upgrading, and more time on critical network tasks.
Lake Partners’ research shows that for maintenance tasks, different operating systems had varied impact on network efficiency. In particular, customers perceive that JUNOS software creates significant operational efficiencies. On average, Juniper customers report that JUNOS software reduces time spent monitoring by an average of 24%. Upgrading with JUNOS software is also quicker than with other operating systems. Specifically, JUNOS software saves customers an average of 22% of time when upgrading at the core and 23% when upgrading at the edge.
Imtech Telecom boasts Juniper Elite Partner status and Juniper Global Support Manager status and focuses on customers within the Telecommunication Marketplace. With over 6 years experience in working with Juniper Networks, Imtech have gained the breadth and depth of knowledge to be able to provide pre-sales, design and consulting skills that our customers demand.
In order to ensure our Elite status Imtech Telecom continues to invest heavily in the skills of our staff. This ensures that we have the appropriate and adequate level of accredited engineers required to provide our customers with an unequalled level of design and consultancy expertise. Our team includes 3 x JNCIE, 3 x JNCIP and 9 x JNCIS accredited engineers in our pre-sales, consulting and support personnel.
If you are interested in the further benefits of JUNOS. Contact Imtech now!
The report can be read in full at: www.juniper.net/lakepartners