Juniper Networks unveils Junosphere Classroom

Juniper Networks has launched  Junosphere Classroom, a new cloud-based service designed to enable educational institutions, partners and customers to efficiently and cost-effectively educate networking students and professionals.  Junosphere Classroom is based on Junosphere, a new cloud environment that enables the creation and modeling of virtual networks and elements running the industry-leading Junos operating system.

Educating professionals about networking concepts, routing protocols and security paradigms can be complex and expensive. Providing the practical application and hands-on experience required to effectively learn typically requires a physical lab and a significant amount of networking equipment, which is costly in terms of initial capital expense and ongoing operational expenses. Junosphere Classroom overcomes the drawbacks of traditional approaches by allowing customers to create and operate virtual Junos-based networks — decoupling the educational process from the requirement for physical hardware and infrastructure.

“The research and education we perform at Georgia Tech’s Network Operations and Internet Security Lab depends on the ability to experiment using OS and protocols running in today’s commercial networks,” said Nick Feamster, associate professor, Georgia Institute of Technology. “Junosphere Classroom is an exciting new product because it enables programs like ours to experiment and learn with the Junos OS in a virtual environment, which could free us from the expense and scalability limitations of a physical networking lab.”

Juniper Networks hosts Junosphere Classroom resources in data centers, designed using Juniper’s networking and security technologies, which are accessible to students via a secure Internet connection. This “any-time, any-where” access to the Junosphere environment can extend individual study time, and is also ideal for providing remote learning and home-based education.

“Junosphere Classroom is a first-of-its-kind offering that highlights Juniper’s innovation and the value of our focus on a software business model,” said Manoj Leelanivas, executive vice president, Junos Application Software Group, Juniper Networks. “Junosphere Classroom brings the power of Junos to the cloud, enabling our customers to learn and experiment in ways never before possible. Ultimately, this ground-breaking service extends the value of our new network strategy built on a single Junos OS to customers and Juniper alike.”

“In Princeton University’s Network Systems Group, whether we are teaching students or researching next-generation network systems, we rely on networking labs to provide practical applications,” said Jennifer Rexford, Princeton University. “I am excited to see Juniper’s Junosphere Classroom product, because it allows research and education with commercial networking technology in an on-demand, virtual environment without the expense and complexity of physical network labs.”

Pricing and Availability

Junosphere Classroom is available as a standalone offering, and as a component of the Juniper Networks Academic Alliance (JNAA) and Juniper Networks Authorized Educations Partner (JNAEP) programs, which provide prepackaged curricula and courseware. 

Junosphere Classroom is available immediately and interested universities, partners and customers are encouraged to contact a Juniper Networks account representative for more information.