Network OS matters

By Matt Kolon, APAC CTO | Aug 14, 2009

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The first thing that most organizations think about when building a network are the specifications of the devices to be deployed. Are they faster? What protocol do they support? What is the total throughput capacity? Although these are important questions to consider, it may be more prudent to look at the type of network operating system (OS) that these devices run on. The answers to questions about network devices are often tied to this.

Network OSes began life as basic software to enable peripherals to be shared among network users. This allowed corporate networks to share information across geographical barriers and centralize the management of peripherals, such as printers and data storage devices.

As networks grew and functionality became more complex, the role of the network OS expanded. While today’s network OSes still enable connections between devices they also play an important role in managing security, scalability and performance of a network, ultimately influencing the effectiveness of the entire infrastructure.

This is now becoming more important as organizations concentrate on cost reduction, acceleration of service delivery and maximizing revenue. Although concepts such as business agility, responsiveness and customer service are still important, the mantra that is foremost in the minds of many executives is "operational efficiency".

In February 2009 Forrester Consulting published the results of a survey, commissioned by Juniper Networks, which found that 62% of respondents agreed that multiple network OSes impact efficiency. Forrester's study – A Single Network OS: Maximizing Operational Efficiency And Flexibility – also found that, among respondents who claimed they have a single network OS, 52% admitted to running multiple versions of that OS.

Overall, the study concluded that maintaining multiple network OSes and OS versions directly impacted operational complexity. It also said that vendor selection was crucial. “Selecting a vendor that improves your operational efficiency guarantees you'll go after the additional tasks like monitoring, maintenance, provisioning, and troubleshooting,” the study pointed out.

Why? The reason is simple: All aspects of network management – from configuration to maintenance to optimization – are more difficult to co-ordinate across multiple network OSes and OS versions. This leads to inefficiencies and performance issues.

This is why Juniper Networks has always focused on building a single OS from a single code base, developed along a single release train. Called JUNOS, the Free BSD-based network OS has provided customers with a modular architecture and a steady release of new versions for more than ten years. Since July 7, 1998, when the first version of JUNOS entered the market, Juniper has continually invested in upgrading the OS, which is now used across its routing, switching and security platforms, through quarterly releases. May 2009 saw the arrival of JUNOS 9.1, the 38th release of the OS.
 

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