We use Juniper Session Smart Router to streamline and automate our operations across nearly 3,000 global branches.
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We use Juniper Session Smart Router to streamline and automate our operations across nearly 3,000 global branches.
We replaced outdated routers with a more flexible and automated design, involving access and channel boxes at the network edge. These routers efficiently handle point-of-sale and online transactions, automatically balancing the load and routing traffic based on available bandwidth. Our goal is to eliminate manual configuration, allowing the devices to smartly filter and route various types of data traffic. This upgrade ensures our network is more responsive, handling transactions seamlessly and optimizing overall performance.
The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel. Unlike other SD-WAN solutions using IPsec, Juniper sends secure IP packets without adding extra headers, saving bandwidth. This unique approach ensures a secure connection from our stores to the data center, all within Juniper devices. There is no unnecessary overhead for bulk traffic.
Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance. Sometimes, there are glitches, especially with MTU issues that affect application communication, although this seems to be a common problem across various SD-WAN solutions, not just Juniper. Another thing that could be improved is the setup process. It would be great if configuring the SSR could be simpler, like making firmware updates to the 128 version without the need for complex linking with interfaces. Also, reducing the delay in reflecting interface changes on the GUI would make the user experience smoother.
I have been working with Juniper Session Smart Router for almost four years.
The stability of Juniper Session Smart Router has been a bit inconsistent. While issues do crop up regularly, I wouldn't solely blame the box itself. It seems like the lack of robust support is hindering the device from reaching its full potential. For instance, in a recent MTA issue, we were advised to upgrade to a new version, only to discover another bug that hampers the device's performance in a mixed environment. Overall, I would rate the stability at a six out of ten.
I would rate the scalability as a nine out of ten. It is quite scalable. In our organization, we use Juniper Session Smart Router across 4,000 sites, totaling around 40,000 users when considering redundancy.
I would rate Juniper's support team as a five out of ten. In comparison to other support teams I have worked with, they could improve. Many engineers, including those with several years of experience, find the support lacking in expertise. The team often relies on generic information from guides and searches, rather than providing specific solutions to the problem at hand. It seems like they might need better training or a more efficient process to address issues promptly. Overall, it takes them some time to get to the root of the problem, which can be frustrating.
Neutral
The initial setup of this router is a bit complex even for experienced engineers. It runs on Linux and requires extra steps for configuration. The blasting process, where you load the software, often gets stuck, and we end up doing it a few times. It is not very reliable, and even Juniper tech support hasn't given a clear fix. Both the setup steps and software stability can be a bit of a hassle. Deploying Juniper Session Smart Router takes some time. After all the planning and documentation are done, it usually takes more than a week or around ten days to get the connector set up on our on-premises data center.
Juniper Session Smart Router is not significantly cheaper than, for example, Cisco.
My advice for others considering Juniper Session Smart Router is to improve the GUI-based management. Right now, it heavily relies on CLI, which can be less reliable and time-consuming. Overall, I would rate Juniper Session Smart Router as an eight out of ten. While it has some good new features, the overall performance could be better.
We deploy the solution on UCPs. The solution is used for the edge and can be used for Vista, low bandwidth links, session failover, or smooth session failovers, and can be deployed on public clouds. Juniper Session Smart Router can save up to thirty percent of bandwidth and database usage.
The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based. It has artificial intelligence and AI ops interface through Mist Cloud. Juniper Session Smart Router is a complete edge-to-cloud stack, with an access point. We can have a complete stack built around Juniper SD-WAN, switches, Wi-Fi, and the cloud. This complete stack can scale up from small branches to large, hundred-gig deployments.
Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments.
I have been using the solution for three years.
The solution is extremely stable.
The solution is highly scalable by default zero ZTNAs built into the product.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The licensing is straightforward and not per device. It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default. We can add additional features if we wish; for example, if we want a cloud-based controller, there are certain licenses available. It is quite simple. I understand that it can be deployed on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and GCP.
I give the solution a ten out of ten.
Depending on the use case, whether we are in retail, banking, IT, or manufacturing, the deployments may differ depending on if we are on a digitization journey or moving workloads to the cloud. This solution is very good because it is scalable across all use cases, saving 30 percent of the bandwidth in its transport diagnostic and database. The solution is session-aware, rather than relying on external-based technology, so everything is seen as a session. We can run our SLA metrics on the session, rather than per source to destination, providing complete visibility of the session. Juniper Session Smart Router is also big in zero trust access. All in all, whatever we need is available, with a single pane of glass to see all the features. This makes it a great solution and it is easy to deploy, with both cloud-based environments and on-prem orchestration available.
