Our networkpartner: Juniper Networks

This year the network at The Reality is made possible by the products supplied to us by Juniper Networks. Juniper Networks is the number one supplier for network equipment, ranging from switches to cybersecurity. We are very excited to have Juniper Networks as our partner at The Reality XIX!

Because we understand that not everyone is familiar with Juniper Networks and their products and services, we asked Melchior Aelmans, Sr. Sales Engineer, some questions.

Juniper Networks provides the network equipment during The Reality. What makes your equipment so suitable for this event?
 
Because the same operating system, JUNOS, runs on all switches, routers and firewalls, you as administrator can quickly configure all different devices. The network of an event such as The Reality is temporary but there are very high requirements.
All our devices are built with the 'carrier grade' idea, which means that we always take the highest demands into account that our customers can make when designing and building their network.
We often see that, contrary to popular belief, it is often the gamers who set these high demands. Especially low latency is essential in gaming. With the equipment that The Reality now has at its disposal, a network comparable to a large Service Provider can be built.
 
What is the maximum capacity that you can use for an event such as The Reality?
 
One of the most important aspects of Juniper Networks is what we call backward compatibility, which means we often support legacy techniques with new equipment and software. On the other hand, we always try to be one of the first to support new techniques and standards. This allows us to connect the visitors of The Reality to 1 and 10Gbit and even scale the backbone to 100Gb if needed. Soon that will even be up to 400Gb.
 
Why do you attach such importance to supporting events like The Reality?
 
There are a number of reasons why we consider events such as The Reality important; it is the perfect way to show what our equipment can do; as I just said, gamers have very high demands, often even higher than other customers, so we also have to stay sharp and a gaming event is the perfect showcase. In addition, many of today's gamers are the future network managers, so we think it's great to let them know what is possible and to make them familiar with the equipment we make.
Also, and perhaps most importantly, we find supporting communities and bringing together people who share knowledge or experiences during these kinds of events just as important. The internet / network is ultimately in many cases there to share information between people and thus connecting people. If we can help with this, we will be happy to do so.
 
What do you do besides supporting events like The Reality?
 
Juniper Networks is a manufacturer of network hardware such as routers, switches and firewalls. In addition, we build software to manage, optimize and secure the network. The customers we supply to are ranging from major Service Providers, Internet Providers, Enterprises and other (large) businesses. We also have many governments as customers.
We often deliver the entire network together with partners and offer solutions for Multi Cloud or connectivity issues in general.
 
Which problems were really annoying and troublesome problems a few years ago and have become a lot easier with today's technology? And do you have an example of this?
 
There are a number of problems and challenges that we would like to solve. In the data center and especially between data centers, we want to get rid of the traditional layer 2 connections as quickly as possible. By using newer techniques such as EVPN we can solve many of the problems that now occur in such environments.

In addition, we see that through the use of multiple clouds, both the ones in their own data center and in public clouds, the requirements for monitoring and security of all these connections are becoming ever higher. To make this transparent, we offer tools such as Appfromix that enable us to gain an end-to-end insight into not only the network itself but also how the application, which ultimately matters, performs.