Juniper Networks is rolling out its network at the London School of Economics (LSE) to help the university's researchers and lecturers securely transfer data between the campus and off-site datacentres.
It will also provide support for network automation, management and orchestration using emerging SDN and NFV-based solutions.
The additional capacity will ensure growing data can be stored securely, without adding excessive costs, Juniper said, while it can scale according to LSE's needs.
LSE's senior network architect Matt Bernstein explained that security was key when choosing a solution for the university's infrastructure.
"Encrypting all of our traffic is essential because the Janet network is essentially a public cloud and we have no assurance that applications transmit confidential data securely," Bernstein explained. "Encryption gives us long-term confidence that our solution will meet our future security needs and compliance demands."
The implementation combines Juniper Networks' MX240 3D Universal Edge Routers, SRX5400 Services Gateway cluster and QFX5100 Ethernet Switches with the company's Virtual Chassis Fabric technology. Juniper's partner Axians provided a Proof of Concept (PoC) in its dedicated lab facility to ensure the infrastructure could cope with demand.
"We can't know what our academies will need from the IT infrastructure in a few years' time so we built in a future-proof network from day one," Bernstein added. "The solution anticipates future capacity, topologies and technologies like SDN, because we know we can do more or less anything we need to on the Juniper equipment."
