Transform Modern Data Centers With Multivendor Capabilities

0:00 [Music]

0:04 welcome back to centrally speaking I'm

0:06 joined here with my colleague Scott

0:08 snedden again and today we're going to

0:10 talk to you about multivendor uh Juniper

0:13 is claiming that they support

0:14 multivendor environments with this thing

0:17 called abstra um there's always been a

0:20 lot of skepticism with one vendor

0:23 claiming they can manage and support

0:25 other vendors equipment so Scott tell me

0:28 a bit about what you think

0:30 this whole multivendor thing is about

0:31 and why is Juniper doing it and and what

0:34 are the benefits well I we we know that

0:38 networks are multivendor we know that

0:41 most networks are not a single vendor or

0:43 at least Juniper realizes this I'm not

0:46 sure all our competitors realize that

0:47 all the time but this is baked into our

0:49 DNA since the founding of juniper we

0:52 were never the only vendor in a network

0:55 we always strived for interoperability

0:57 and openness interconnectivity and and

1:00 driving Open Standards and so existing

1:03 in a multivendor environment has been

1:06 one of our core values now continuing

1:09 into this age of Automation and building

1:12 tooling that sits above a network layer

1:14 we've seen a lot of vendor Solutions

1:16 come to the market that are frankly

1:18 proprietary and closed and can only

1:20 operate one vendor's Network equipment

1:23 and so we think it's time for vendors to

1:26 think a little bit differently and so

1:28 our approach again leaning on our

1:30 history and DNA of being interoperable

1:32 and open is that we've built a

1:35 multivendor capable operations tool with

1:38 abstra is that is that hard to do in

1:40 support like I hear questions like you

1:43 know what if what if you know one of

1:45 your vendors has a new box that comes

1:48 out which they always do what what's the

1:51 lag time uh for us to catch up to

1:53 support that that that box how does that

1:55 all work well thankfully the ecosystem

1:58 around API and Publishing tooling for

2:03 our competitors customers to use

2:05 automation makes it easy for us to build

2:08 that automation there is a global

2:10 community of people who automate there

2:12 are all kinds of resources available to

2:15 understand those apis and interfaces and

2:18 there's also been some standardization

2:20 around those apis and interfaces that

2:23 makes it not all that difficult to

2:25 support a multivendor environment of

2:27 course we have to invest in the

2:29 equipment and the and and the

2:30 environment to test this and qualify

2:32 that but we're committed to doing that

2:34 and we've been proving that we're

2:36 continuing to do that ever since we

2:38 acquired abstra in 2021 so yeah we've

2:41 got a few years under our belt now

2:43 excellent well I I know the supply chain

2:45 was a massive issue for the last few

2:46 years it seems to be getting better

2:48 which is tremendous uh so supply chain

2:50 was one benefit that our customers had

2:53 been able to to pick and choose

2:55 different vendors depending on the the

2:57 lead time for the equipment um the other

3:00 thing I hear about is is the reduced

3:03 complexity in learning two or three

3:04 different you know command line

3:06 interfaces can you share some of your

3:08 thoughts and experiences or even

3:09 feedback from people that don't have to

3:11 do that anymore well one of the big

3:13 Inhibitors to going multivendor was just

3:15 finding people that knew these different

3:17 platforms we're pretty versed on junos

3:21 my Cisco skills are a little aged um so

3:23 if you were to hire me to run a Cisco

3:25 Network I'd probably not be your best

3:27 hire um and vice versa if you want to go

3:31 multivendor but all of your network

3:33 Engineers are ccie Cisco trained it

3:36 might be difficult for them to learn

3:38 these other interfaces and so then it

3:41 becomes really important that you

3:43 leverage tools that make that domain

3:46 specific knowledge less important and if

3:49 we look to the Future well a lot of us

3:52 are maybe aging out of bit and a lot of

3:54 the people with network engineering

3:56 skills are a little older and and might

3:58 not be on the market

4:00 and we don't often come cheap so if

4:03 you're building a network today if

4:04 you're building up your practice inside

4:06 your organization to operate your

4:08 network it's hard to find experienced

4:11 Network Engineers for any vendor let

4:13 alone Network Engineers that know

4:15 multiple vendors and

4:17 so leveraging a tool that makes

4:20 operating networks easier is really

4:23 important leveraging a tool that can

4:25 work across multiple vendors so that you

4:28 can choose the best of platform without

4:31 worrying if you have the skills on your

4:32 team to operate that platform is really

4:35 important so you can pull a new college

4:37 grad with a certification in Cloud Ops

4:40 and put them on your network engineering

4:42 team teach them network engineering

4:44 fundamentals but don't have to worry

4:46 about them memorizing each vendor's CLI

4:49 and that's one of the things that we

4:51 bring to the table with abstra yeah it's

4:53 trem I don't think I've met anybody

4:54 excited to learn a new CLI these days so

4:59 removing which is tremendous excellent

5:01 well thanks Scot and thanks everybody

5:03 for joining us again really appreciate

5:05 your time

5:07 [Music]

5:13 cheers