White label cloud provider Hosted Network refreshes core network with Juniper kit

Sydney-based white label cloud provider Hosted Network has refreshed its core network with Juniper Networks routing and gateway solutions.

The refresh aimed to provide Hosted’s small and medium business customers an increase in network capacity and cloud services.

Hosted upgraded the network with Juniper’s MX Series 5G universal routing platforms and SRX Series services gateways to improve network reliability and performance, create more cloud-based offerings, streamline product and services installation and configuration, as well as provisioning.

Hosted Network managing director Ben Town said, “We were constantly increasing our network capacity. We reached a tipping point that required a more automated, high-performance network.”

“Our entry point to Juniper was around providing a standardised customer premises equipment (CPE) solution that could be automated to simplify network processes for our MSP customers. When we learned more about Juniper, it made sense to refresh the core network so we could have a common base for automation and use our Ansible functionality.”

The routing platform helps Hosted automate routing, switching and security capabilities for its core network connecting its data centres in Melbourne, Perth, Queensland and Sydney.

The gateways meanwhile provide firewalls to protect the network perimeter and act as a pathway for the MSPs to automate the provisioning of new customers and introduce services and products.

“We chose the SRX320 for its modular cards,” Town said. “It fit our customers’ needs and gave us a standard CPE that makes it much easier for our customers and us. Instead of having to support and manage a range of different CPEs, we’ve standardised on a single platform that serves all our different requirements.”

The automation capabilities has generated operational efficiencies for Hosted, with customers getting set up faster than before and configuration errors from manual entries were reduced significantly.

“Our DevOps team is building internal tools so customers can self-service,” Town said. “Customers can place an order for a private network or new sites. The order flows to our provisioning team, and they can quickly process it. We are seeing measurable time savings, as it now takes only one-third of the time it used to take to make these types of changes.”