Juniper Networks announced enhancements to its Apstra solution, which is an intent-based networking (IBN) software platform that automates and validates the design, deployment, and operation of data center networks.
Apstra works by modeling the network as a graph, which allows it to understand the relationships and dependencies between all of the network devices and elements. This model is used to validate the network design and to generate configuration instructions for the devices. Apstra can also monitor the network in real time and identify any problems or misconfigurations.
New capabilities in the latest release of Apstra software include:
- Simple data collection and visualization – users can now customize intent-based analytics probes for telemetry and visibility into network operations, then easily explore and visualize the data using the new database query interface included in Apstra 4.2.0.
- Complete network visibility with integrated flow data – multivendor flow data through Apstra provides granular visibility for in-depth analysis and insights into the application traffic flows traversing the network without the complexity and cost of a separate monitoring system. When paired with Apstra’s telemetry and analytics features, these capabilities simplify and speed troubleshooting, enable better performance management, capacity planning and cost control, and improve security and compliance – regardless of vendor.
- Automated and streamlined network provisioning with Terraform. Companies currently using the Terraform infrastructure-as-code (IaC) platform to automate their public cloud deployments can now use the Terraform provider for Apstra to automatically push configurations to the data center through Apstra without any API programming.