Juniper unveils high-performance QFabric networking

Juniper Networks has unveiled a new network architecture that the company sees as changing the enterprise datacentre ladnscape.

QFabric aims to connect all devices in a 'flattened' connection model, and is touted as a single-tier platform that manages enterprise datacentres and network infrastructure through a single device.

Juniper said that this can dramatically improve datacentre performance. In trials with a 6,000-port, 3,000-server test network, QFabric was able to improve speeds by a factor of 10 using 77 per cent less power, 90 per cent less floor space and 27 per cent fewer devices, the company claimed.

"We are going to transform datacentres on all scales from being slow, expensive and inefficient to being fast, reliable and efficient," said Pradeep Sindhu, chief technical officer and founder of Juniper Networks.

"In all cases it would mean that the rate of innovation on this planet is going to take a dramatic upturn as a result of this compute power."

The hardware behind the QFabric system consists of three distinct components: an x86 'director' appliance, which occupies two units and manages the system; a one-unit node system which supports up to 64 10GB Ethernet ports; and two interconnect chassis appliances.

Juniper plans to launch the node device later this quarter as the QFX 3500. The rest of the platform is slated for release in the third quarter.

The platform will be limited initially to datacentres with between 1,000 and 6,000 ports, but Juniper plans to extend QFabric to smaller networks and large-scale deployments with ports numbering in the tens of thousands.

Mike Spanbauer, principal analyst for enterprise networking and datacentre technology at Current Analysis, told V3.co.uk that Juniper could have the right perspective on alleviating the crunch on datacentres and network infrastructure that large enterprises can present.

"There are customers with needs that can far exceed anything that can be delivered today," he said.

Glen Hunt, principal transport and routing analyst at Current Analysis, added: "It seems like, from an architecture point of view, Juniper is not just putting patches on the datacentre problem."