The regional service provider Wow Internet, Cable & Phone is field testing Juniper Networks’ Cloud CPE as a means to deliver new services to business customers.
Juniper’s Cloud CPE includes the Contrail cloud platform, Contrail service orchestration, and vSRX virtual firewall. It gives broadband operators such as Wow the ability to provide a portfolio of hosted services on-demand such as security, voice, WiFi, and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN).
Cloud CPE serves as a foundational element of Wow’s virtual network platform. The Contrail service orchestration provides a suite of tools to deliver cloud-based network services across their lifecycle. The Contrail cloud platform creates and deploys virtual network functions (VNFs) in OpenStack clouds. With vSRX, a broadband provider can offer its business customers managed core firewall and networking security.
Wow is combining VNFs with existing physical devices, including Juniper’s MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, EX Series Ethernet Switches, and QFX Series Switches.
Juniper first announced its Cloud CPE about a year ago. The product is based on Contrail’s open source software. It’s targeted at service providers to move from hardware-based environments to more agile VNFs. In addition to Wow, Verizon says it’s using Juniper’s Cloud CPE as part of its virtualization strategy.