Proof of Concept / Demo Lab

Juniper POC/Demo LabThe world today is moving from an industrial era based on natural resources into a knowledge era based on information, skill, research and development. Today knowledge is undoubtedly the key for innovation and global economical growth.

In the last three decades, the definition of computer and network has changed from a local standalone Personal Computer (PC) to a device on the Internet. In 1984, SUN Microsystems gave the vision of "the Network is the Computer" and promoted TCP/IP (IPV4) as the protocol to interconnect standalone computers on the local network and today TCP/IP has been integrated every PC, handheld device and smart phone, the local network has now evolved into "The Internet".

Today it is estimated that there are over 100 million hosts and over 250 million active users on the Internet and the fact is the world has run out of the IPv4 address space. The change over to IPV6 – the new system of addressing (IPv6 will give us 10 to the power of 38 addresses - a number made up of one followed by 38 zeros as opposed to IPv4’s 4.3 billion addresses – 4.3 followed by 9 zeros) has already started. Technological changes are advancing rapidly, users and consumers expectations have changed and now everyone expects the Internet to be always available. The Internet has shifted traditional business from the high street to online, e-commerce on the Web. Businesses have now extended their reach from the local consumers to global consumers.

Whilst all these technological advances have offered consumers a better choice and value, and suppliers a larger consumer base, it has also increased the level of anti-social activities and cyber crime and therefore made the roles and responsibilities of the security and network architect to not only guard the physical boundaries of the business, but also to protect the virtual boundaries of the ever expanding network. Their ever growing concern now is how to guard the intellectual and commercial sensitive data stored on the network both within the physical boundary of the business and on computers and system in the Cloud.

Where does the crucial resource of knowledge to maintain a secured and efficient infrastructure or network come from? Which choice of vendor of security and network technology suits the business best? Will it interoperate with the existing setup? How long will it take to integrate or change? How much will it cost and is this cost justified? All these are questions facing the CxOs, technologies and system administrators of every business which has some kind of Internet presence or connectivity.

To answer some of these questions the CxOs often contact local system integrators, product resellers and vendors to show them a demo of the products. However this approach does not always offer a complete solution to businesses, especially the midsized or larger businesses which have a significant technology investment in place and a range of change management and compliance procedures to maintain. These demos often are incomplete and more or less end up as a mere formality with very little value. Once a purchase decision is made there is little choice the business has other than to implement the procured solution and workaround any short falls.

In order to provide a more focused and methodical process and to simulate a real life scenario to evaluate technology solutions, Solutions Enterprise Pvt. Ltd.(SEPL) has joined forces with Juniper to setup a Juniper Studio – a Demo Lab equipped with Juniper and other peripheral devices. SEPL is also in the process of enhancing the offering with complement products from other vendors of Network and Remote access products, Security, IP management and Compliance management.

The Juniper Studio is setup to simulate the relevant customers’ environment with the help of senior consultants from SEPL and Juniper. They will evaluate the customer requirements and understand the existing limitations and pain points and accordingly work with the customer to simulate the scenario (where possible), evaluate the solutions and draw out a deployment plan of action. The Juniper Studio can also facilitate the exchange of ideas / experience of existing users.

SEPL will also host regular workshop and programs for interested audiences to demonstrate products and solutions from Juniper and other complementing vendors. SEPL will also provide advisory services and help clients through the entire life-cycle including (and not limited to) Proof of Concept (PoC), Consulting, Procurement, Implementation and after sale support.

Some advantages of Proof of Concept are:

  • Address any design and impact concerns without affecting your production network
  • Test new versions and firmware
  • Develop the required upgrade and deployment scripts before implementation
  • Prove the setup works before committing any significant expenditure

Some recent Proof of Concepts done by SEPL are:

  1. Unified Access to data network using laptop and standard login profile

    Customer Requirement:
    Want to use the same laptop (used by top executives) to access corporate data from any location within office network or from Internet without compromising security

    Solution:
    The Server and data infrastructure were moved to a datacentre location and interconnected to all offices using site-to-site VPN over the Internet with Juniper firewalls. Single Active Directory with roaming profiles and domain controllers were replicated on each site to provide resilience.

    Juniper SSL VPN (Juniper MAG appliance) was used to securely connect into the datacentre. RSA Secure ID token was used for two form authentication. When users connected to the corporate data network the SSL VPN disabled split tunnel to enforce all traffic going via the VPN tunnel, disable internet and enforce standard browsing policy.

  2. High Available VOIP solution for Call Centre
  3. Branch and Sales office connectivity over MPLS network