Juniper Beyond Labs: Innovation for the Future
Watch to learn about Juniper Beyond Labs and exciting projects already in the lab.
What is Juniper Beyond Labs? Raj Yavatkar, Chief Technology Officer at Juniper Networks, answers that question, and shares how the lab is accelerating innovation to deliver experience-first networking through the power of collaborative research and minimum viable demos.
For more information visit Juniper Beyond Labs.
You’ll learn
What projects are already being worked on in the lab
Examples of how Juniper Beyond Labs is fostering a culture of innovation
Who is this for?
Host
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Transcript
0:04 good morning
0:09 last night everybody had some kind of
0:11 dinner some kind of event I think so I'm
0:13 glad to see people are awake caffeinated
0:16 so very happy to be here to talk about
0:18 uh an initiative and a concept that
0:22 we're launching today at Juniper
0:24 Networks we call it Juniper Beyond labs
0:27 and it's really about how we can
0:30 formalize our history and DNA of
0:33 innovation into really creating a
0:36 structure around which we can partner
0:37 collaborate with the ecosystem to
0:40 continue to innovate for the future
0:43 so I want to start with this quote which
0:45 is very important I think especially
0:48 um that we have Silicon Valley is a
0:50 great example of a graveyard of many
0:53 successful companies
0:55 who ignored this particular advice and
0:59 just see what happened to them so it's
1:01 important I think anytime you are very
1:03 successful to be very paranoid and very
1:07 careful about how did you reinvent
1:09 yourself continuously uh to be able to
1:11 continue to be successful
1:16 and The Innovation matters for the same
1:18 reason as I said you that you know it
1:20 requires you to uh be agile you have to
1:23 continue to reinvent yourself you have
1:25 to find a ways to go about
1:27 it is definitely an engine of growth uh
1:29 people are able to grow because they
1:31 continue to inhibit uh you saw what
1:33 happened with generative AI in the last
1:35 six months it's a biggest disruption
1:37 since the HTTP web browser was invented
1:40 and everyone is scrambling to react to
1:43 that inflection point uh but that's
1:45 going to lead to a lot of growth both
1:47 for existing companies as well as new
1:49 companies and finally differentiation I
1:52 think Innovation is the only way you can
1:54 differentiate you have to stay ahead of
1:55 the curve ahead of the competition and
1:57 so on and uh nowadays the
1:59 differentiation is even more important
2:00 because in a global economy there are
2:03 lots of places around the world where
2:04 Innovation is happening it's no longer
2:05 restricted to industrialized economies
2:08 and Western Nations
2:13 when it comes to Juniper we do believe
2:15 that Innovation is ingrained in our DNA
2:17 because the company started as a
2:19 challenger to an existing company doing
2:21 x86-based routers by introducing very
2:24 Innovative high performance networking
2:26 Asics
2:28 since then we have branched out into
2:30 Network virtualization connected
2:32 security we embed Security in all of the
2:35 portfolio it's a it's an adjective for
2:38 us secure is objectively used for any
2:40 networking product we put out
2:42 uh we have been now leaders in a Gartner
2:46 magic quadrant for three years in a row
2:48 as a Visionary as well as leaders in
2:50 execution in terms of applying machine
2:52 learning and AI uh for cloud managed
2:56 operations of Campus Branch networks
2:58 Wi-Fi and Azure secure Networks
3:03 Cloud native that's one of the
3:04 architectures that we keep on pushing
3:06 because what we do in a physical Network
3:08 infrastructure is equally applicable in
3:10 the cloud so not only that we want to
3:12 provide products for physical Network
3:14 infrastructure in the cloud but also
3:16 when it comes to Virtual networking the
3:18 cloud cloud networking into VPC
3:20 inter-cloud inter-region networking we
3:23 are providing Cloud native uh products
3:25 and finally 5G has really disaggregated
3:29 how the aggregation points on the
3:31 network from the frontal middle back
3:34 caller coming into either through fixed
3:36 Wireless Wi-Fi cable everything is
3:39 coming to Metro it's a very largely
3:41 distributed network no longer using the
3:44 traditional ring kind of topology and we
3:47 have a cloud Metro portfolio to bring
3:49 principles of cloud native architecture
3:51 to the metro area
3:56 so given that history uh let me play a
4:01 video which really talks about what we
4:03 are trying to achieve this concept
4:05 called Juniper Beyond labs
4:08 Innovation is not just a buzzword here
4:11 at Juniper Networks it's what we do and
4:14 who we are innovators focus on improving
4:17 networks every day relentlessly focus on
4:21 scaling IP networks faster and more
4:23 efficiently than anyone else
4:25 revolutionizing internet security
4:28 reimagining network operations to
4:30 improve the network operator and end the
4:33 user experience
4:34 with active Assurance artificial
4:37 intelligence intent-driven Automation
4:39 and Cloud orchestration for Enterprise
4:42 cloud and service provider networks so
4:45 everyone has a better connected
4:46 experience
4:48 and now Juniper Beyond Labs is
4:51 accelerating Innovation that focuses on
4:53 improving our ability to scale sustain
4:56 and enhance networks for a better user
4:59 experience with a global community of
5:02 Partners we're pioneering research path
5:05 finding new Solutions and engaging with
5:07 thought leaders enabling you to
5:10 experience groundbreaking Innovation
5:12 through proof of Concepts and go to
5:15 market trials collaborate with leading
5:17 academic and Commercial partners and
5:20 deliver sustainable networking
5:22 simplified operations and a better
5:25 networking experience for users
5:29 Juniper Beyond Labs gives you access to
5:31 new research and expert guidance
5:33 providing a community open and willing
5:36 to share ideas shaping the future of our
5:39 industry Juniper Beyond lab is the
5:42 Innovation Hub where real world
5:44 challenges become real-time Solutions
5:47 now is the time to collaborate now is
5:51 the time to innovate now is the time for
5:54 Juniper Beyond labs
6:00 the video really tries to capture what I
6:03 was talking about that how we want to
6:05 use this concept to really partner and
6:06 collaborate with people what I'm going
6:08 to do in the rest of the presentation is
6:10 elaborate and give examples of what
6:12 we're doing and where we invite others
6:14 to join us
6:16 so I think uh there are four pillars to
6:19 this particular concept first is of
6:21 course Innovation we talked about it
6:22 will give some examples the other is
6:24 customer engagement we can engage with
6:26 customers for joint projects like we're
6:28 doing with some of the service providers
6:30 in Europe uh demos at our executive
6:35 briefing Center
6:37 um in some Partnerships in which we do
6:39 join projects so that's the engagement
6:41 the collaboration is also another
6:43 important pillar where we are
6:45 collaborating with companies like Intel
6:46 Dell Rakuten mobile and so on to create
6:50 joint Innovative Innovations to move the
6:53 industry forward we're also
6:54 collaborating with academic Partners
6:56 like Purdue University or a company like
6:58 eurofiber or the government agencies uh
7:02 or a startup like arcade and so on and
7:04 finally sustainability is very important
7:06 just the previous speaker talked about
7:08 need for sustainable networks and one of
7:11 the things I'll talk about with concrete
7:12 examples is what we are trying to do to
7:15 really change the way we think about
7:16 networking especially divided and
7:18 networking data center networking and so
7:20 on
7:24 so I think there are three aspects of
7:26 innovation so I want to go through all
7:27 the four pillars I talked about
7:29 Innovation engagement collaboration and
7:32 sustainability in the area of innovation
7:34 first of all we start with really
7:36 research where we jointly work with
7:39 University
7:40 universities to fund research in
7:42 universities we have done it ourselves
7:44 in the area of silicon photonics Quantum
7:46 networking and so on next is pathfinding
7:49 projects this is concept in which you
7:51 start a project as an exploratory
7:53 project to try out new idea an example
7:55 of such a project which is already
7:57 delivering results in area 5G Oran is
8:01 our Iran intelligence controller which
8:03 is truly in the new operating system for
8:05 an open disaggregated RAM and that
8:08 allows us to interoperate with anybody's
8:11 radio stack as well as allow third-party
8:13 ecosystem of application developers to
8:15 start delivering value just like what
8:18 Apple App Store did in the area of
8:20 mobile phones similar concept exists in
8:22 Oram
8:23 then lastly the thought leadership which
8:26 comes in a variety of forms such as as I
8:28 mentioned demos join projects pocs we
8:31 also started dialogues our speaker
8:34 series where we bring in experts from
8:36 outside to talk about
8:39 Innovation or what they are doing where
8:42 the industry should go so those are the
8:44 three really aspects of how we want to
8:46 push the innovation
8:48 the next thing is
8:50 how do we go about Innovation right how
8:52 do we get the ideas so if you look at
8:54 the right hand the left hand side it
8:55 talks about where you get the funnel of
8:58 ideas they can come from customers
9:00 industry needs and trains our partners
9:03 as I mentioned our own engineering teams
9:05 sales teams architecture teams our
9:08 strategy team and in general the
9:10 ecosystem you take those ideas and first
9:13 thing you do is that you allocate three
9:15 for resources for ideation of that idea
9:17 to convert that idea into something that
9:21 could become a project
9:22 and part of that exploration is to do
9:26 what I call minimum viable demo it's not
9:28 a minimum viable project it's not a
9:30 science fair demo that you can show and
9:32 throw it over the wall but it's a
9:34 minimum viable demo in the sense that
9:35 you create sufficient level of detail in
9:39 a prototype that you can actually deploy
9:40 in a customer environment to try it out
9:43 and get feedback and if it that passes
9:46 the muster then you go to the next step
9:49 to make it into actual business or a
9:51 product so that's the really the flow of
9:54 innovation from ideas all the way to
9:58 proof of concept Pilots to actual
10:00 products is how the Innovation funnel
10:02 works
10:05 and here's an example of these different
10:07 phases of innovation in action on the
10:10 left hand side you have ideation so for
10:12 example we're working on what we call
10:13 end-to-end Assurance no matter which
10:15 part of the network you operate in from
10:17 client to Cloud so you could be in a
10:19 campus Branch network Wi-Fi network
10:21 access network sd-ban data center or a
10:24 van transport Network across those all
10:27 the way up to the cloud we want to
10:29 deliver a notion of end-to-end assurance
10:32 that you can get both as SLS but also
10:36 secure uh high performance capabilities
10:39 that are guaranteed uh in the end-to-end
10:41 action manner that's a that's an example
10:43 of something at the ideation stage next
10:46 is what we have been doing in the area
10:47 of quantum key distribution right where
10:50 we partner with another company to apply
10:52 concepts of quantum networking for
10:54 Quantum key distribution so we can have
10:57 a security distribution which will not
10:59 have the problems of man in the middle
11:01 attack
11:02 ah we have also started looking at Cloud
11:05 connect as a service yesterday some of
11:08 the speakers talked about her hybrid or
11:09 multi-cloud connectivity is a must for
11:11 Enterprises they will continue to have
11:14 on-prem applications infrastructure but
11:16 they also host some SAS applications in
11:18 multiple clouds multiple regions
11:20 multiple zones to interconnect all of
11:22 those to Virtual networking and physical
11:24 networking requires creating a fabric
11:27 which is completely you can build
11:29 transparently and automatically so that
11:31 customers can focus on their security
11:33 postures and where they want
11:35 applications to deploy
11:37 finally private 5G that's a area where
11:41 given our strengths in Wi-Fi we are
11:44 partnering with third parties so that we
11:46 can deliver private 5G now if you go to
11:49 the right you can say we are at a stage
11:51 where we made the decision with respect
11:52 to whether to go no go in terms of
11:54 actual products like ran SMU or Rick run
11:57 intelligence controller and finally we
11:59 already have shipping and deployed in
12:01 rakutan Mobile in Japan Juniper Cloud
12:03 native router which is a virtualized
12:05 cell set router which is also applicable
12:07 when you move mobile packet goes to
12:09 hyperscale you can provide that kind of
12:11 connectivity even a virtual Cloud
12:13 environment
12:14 so this is sort of a pipeline or a
12:17 different stages of uh innovation in
12:19 action with real examples that I have
12:24 as I said the second is experience right
12:26 how do we engage with customers so
12:28 here's an examples we have of course
12:30 been engaging with our customers in our
12:32 EBC we have multiple centers in Westford
12:35 Mass Bangalore and Sunnyvale we of
12:38 course participate in events like this
12:40 or a host of our own events and their
12:42 demos so that's the model of Engagement
12:45 next thing is sustainability
12:48 so one thing I want to talk about
12:50 sustainability is that it's extremely
12:52 important not just from customer point
12:54 of view it's our ethical and business
12:57 responsibility to the planet to make
12:59 sure that we design products uh for
13:01 networking which are sustainable and one
13:03 of the things you'll notice that in the
13:05 area of data center in the Computing
13:06 industry uh sustainability has been part
13:10 of that the platforms for quite some
13:13 time there are industry benchmarks so
13:14 you can cannot simply make claims of
13:17 sustainability without having benchmarks
13:18 to measure against networking lag stores
13:20 so one of the things we are starting is
13:22 working with other people we Define
13:25 those benchmarks so we can start
13:26 measuring sustainability of our products
13:28 and services
13:29 so here's only some examples of
13:31 sustainability that we are looking at
13:32 look at the ran intelligence controller
13:35 Ram consumes approximately 70 of the
13:38 energy so the Energy Efficiency that is
13:41 very important so one of the things we
13:42 are working with our partners like Ira
13:44 Technologies and others how to apply
13:46 machine learning to get Energy savings
13:49 you are on top of the Run intelligence
13:52 controller uh of course you can do
13:54 internet link energy metering to get
13:56 idea about how much energy you spent per
13:59 bit of Transport across an internet
14:01 uh we have some low power Network
14:03 initiatives Cloud native routing which
14:05 moves routing to the cloud native
14:07 architecture resulting in lots of
14:09 savings and finally AI based automation
14:11 which can also lead to a saving energy
14:17 and here's an example if you take a big
14:19 chassis based router which has lots of
14:21 line cards and fabric cards to connect
14:23 the line cards together the whole
14:25 capacity might be more than terabits per
14:27 second
14:28 now when the network is not being
14:30 utilized say more than 20 percent in
14:32 middle of the night or even 30 40
14:33 percent there's no reason that all the
14:36 parts of this router should be active
14:38 and burning energy
14:39 so one of the things you can do is that
14:41 selectively turn off some fabric cards
14:43 you cannot turn off the line cards where
14:45 the ports are because the packets can
14:47 traffic can come anytime but you can
14:49 still save significant amount of energy
14:51 in the fabric in the back plane of the
14:54 router similarly in the control plane
14:56 you run the control plane protocol stair
14:58 they usually run on x86 architecture
15:01 Intel provides lots of Peace States and
15:03 C States so they save energy that sort
15:05 of thing can be utilized so this is an
15:07 example of how as together all of us in
15:10 networking industry can make networking
15:12 routing switching more sustainable
15:18 finally collaboration collaboration
15:20 comes in many different forms customers
15:22 we are already having examples of
15:24 customers shown here they are
15:25 collaborating with them in innovating or
15:28 pushing the frontiers of knowledge
15:30 academic we have started collaboration
15:32 with many universities such as Purdue
15:34 stand for Berkeley and so on where we
15:37 find the University Research which is
15:40 completely a sponsored research with no
15:43 strings attached they're free to do
15:45 their research bring the ideas for
15:46 forward but that way we can push the
15:49 knowledge of apprentice of knowledge and
15:52 finally industry Partners I have listed
15:54 a lot of them here and we have active
15:56 participation and partnership with all
15:58 of them
16:00 so the reason uh the collaboration is
16:02 important is that any company is not
16:04 going to be able to make inroads and
16:07 react to Industry trains ah by itself by
16:10 collaborating across the whole ecosystem
16:12 we can all benefit that's the idea
16:16 so I think if you look at our partners
16:18 and there are some of the codes shared
16:19 from Academia from industry Partners
16:22 customers and so on uh who are very
16:25 happy to join us in the journey
16:27 and every Partners here and they come
16:31 from a spectrum of different companies
16:33 and customers as well as Academia
16:38 so finally I think I have my call to
16:40 action for all of you is that join us in
16:43 terms of exploring the possibilities
16:45 so that we can shape the future of our
16:47 industry and we are
16:50 truly innovating tomorrow's Network
16:52 today and we want to do that through
16:54 collaboration
16:56 focus on sustainable networks which is
16:58 no longer a slogan it's a reality a
17:00 necessity that we owe it to the planet
17:02 and finally provide a better connected
17:05 experience across client client to cloud
17:08 or into an assured experience
17:12 thank you
17:15 great
17:16 thank you very much Raj and I'm happy
17:19 that we can take a few questions thank
17:20 you for making the time you said
17:22 collaborate collaborate collaborate does
17:25 that also mean revenue share in sharing
17:28 the IPR as well that's it I think when
17:31 you talk about uh me I think one of the
17:34 things to remember is that if you look
17:36 at cgpp like bodies they have already
17:38 created a very good framework for
17:40 sharing IPR right we do that on an r d
17:43 basis it's enable non-discriminary same
17:45 thing we have to apply across the
17:47 Spectrum yeah and what about the culture
17:50 really you talked a little bit about
17:51 this but can we go a little bit deeper
17:52 about what type of you know how do you
17:55 really change the culture to be more
17:57 co-creation and just looking not just
18:00 within but without how do you do that so
18:02 I think little quick wins you can apply
18:05 to the audience with many times you have
18:06 to take a leap of faith right so I think
18:08 the examples they can give to our
18:09 partnership with Intel for example Adele
18:11 where we are co-creating and these are
18:14 larger companies which are willing to
18:16 share ideas and IPR to co-create same
18:19 thing we are doing with some of our
18:20 customers in Europe where we are jointly
18:22 creating uh some new ideas yeah okay any
18:25 questions from the audience ladies and
18:27 gentlemen you should take this
18:28 opportunity to speak and ask directly
18:31 from someone who's been driving
18:33 Innovation across the world but let me
18:36 just ask a cheeky question uh which is
18:39 um do you think that there's a greater
18:40 will for innovation in some parts of the
18:43 world versus others
18:46 yes and no I think it's changing you're
18:48 like traditionally we Associated Western
18:51 Nations or U.S North America Europe with
18:55 Innovation but I just came back from
18:57 Bangalore and I was also uh visiting
19:00 some parts of Asia I think the internet
19:03 and Richard the availability of mobile
19:05 networks and all these applications make
19:07 it easier for people to start innovating
19:09 in different parts of the world and
19:11 sometimes the Innovation for the local
19:12 conditions is very different than what
19:15 we think of the Innovation that's
19:16 another thing okay what do you mean by
19:17 that house so I think uh an example I'll
19:20 give you that you know in a developing
19:23 country like India for example found
19:25 that Innovation focus is more in terms
19:28 of doing more with less in terms of any
19:32 part of the network so for example
19:34 simple things like data center design
19:36 they are looking at it using much less
19:39 resources and still be able to
19:41 efficiently run data centers which is
19:43 I'm really glad you mentioned India the
19:45 first perhaps the fastest growing 5G 5
19:48 GSA Market in the world right now is
19:50 there a few weeks ago myself my goodness
19:52 Innovation is coming from the
19:54 Enterprises as well not just the
19:56 technology companies they've got plenty
19:58 of ambition yeah a lot of innovative
20:00 ambition so it has to be a group across
20:03 different groups right that's right okay
20:05 well brilliant thank you very much for
20:07 your time unless we have any other
20:08 questions I'll say thank you very much
20:10 you're around for the rest of the big
20:11 five correct thanks thank you so much
20:13 for your contribution thank you
20:18 foreign