Juniper Networks has launched a software product that supports all the features of its flagship MX2020 router.

vMX 3D Universal Edge Router is a carrier-grade platform that offers customers a more agile option than the MX hardware (the MX2020 ships in a 45U box), although Juniper admits it is unlikely to reach the same levels of performance.

The company believes vMX can bring cloud-like agility to the network and considerably reduce its cost. At the same time, full compatibility with the existing Juniper tools means organizations can experiment with software-defined networking (SDN) with minimal risk.

Other announcements at Juniper's Network Innovation event in London covered the Contrail Cloud, a software platform for connecting and managing disparate cloud services, new DevOps components for Juniper’s Junos network operating system and Junos Continuity – a simplified framework for hardware upgrades.

Head first
The MX series routers were introduced in 2006 and gained instant popularity among network operators thanks to their large switching and routing capacity. Today, MX hardware powers more than half of the world’s top 100 service providers.

vMX runs Junos and maintains 100 percent operational consistency with MX routers, while being available at a fraction of the cost. It can be deployed on any x86 hardware in minutes, scaled up or down as required and managed through the same tools as Juniper’s  physical routers. This means IT staff can start running SDN without any additional training.

Juniper calls vMX the industry’s first carrier-grade virtual router, shipping with all the features that could interest a network service provider, including support for Contrail and OpenStack orchestration. It will be available in the first quarter of 2015.

“As the industry focus moves to network virtualization, Colt is excited to see Juniper Networks’ announcement today around the virtualization of many network functions. We have a strong relationship with Juniper and look forward to taking advantage of their continued leadership in this space," commented Nicolas Fischbach, director of strategy, architecture and innovation at Colt.

By releasing a virtual router, Juniper has shown its intention to take full advantage of SDN – a trend which is eroding its traditional hardware business.

“Juniper Networks’ heritage is rooted in its willingness to challenge the status quo,” explained Rami Rahim, executive VP of Development and Innovation at Juniper.

“How committed are we? We’ve virtualized our number-one selling routing platform so that our customers can increase service satisfaction, improve brand value and protect their profit margins. That’s how much we believe in our customer’s success.”

The vendor has also released Contrail Cloud, an OpenStack-based software platform for cloud resource orchestration and lifecycle management that brings together compute, network, storage and virtualization. Available now, it is supported by a broad set of technology partners, including Amdocs, Akamai and Canonical.

All of Juniper’s routing platforms have been enhanced with DevOps capabilities. And in the beginning of next year, Junos Continuity feature will finally separate hardware upgrades from software updates, helping avoid the costly qualification testing process.