Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) say it has agreed to buy Netrounds, which has developed a programmable, software-based active test and service assurance platform, for an undisclosed sum. The new assets will augment Juniper’s automated WAN portfolio. Juniper expects the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Formed in 2007 and privately held, Netrounds offers a vendor-agnostic software platform designed to confirm that fixed and mobile network services work as configured throughout their lifecycles. The platform leverages what Juniper describes in a blog as “active test agents” to monitor key performance indicators and assure that services are working properly.
“End-user expectations for a consistently high quality of experience for services delivered over IP networks in the cloud era are extremely high, and the onset of 5G will only accelerate this. Service providers are increasingly looking to differentiate themselves by looking beyond offering basic connectivity and focusing on the quality assurance of their services,” said Manoj Leelanivas, chief product officer, Juniper Networks. “Today’s announcement and plan to bring Netrounds into Juniper will fully automate the complexities of testing and actively monitoring those customer service experiences at scale, a crucial step to staying competitive in today’s dynamic market.”
“Today, end users are often the first to discover service quality problems, as traditional assurance solutions primarily focus on passive device health instead of service quality,” added Mats Nordlund, CEO and co-founder of Netrounds. “Combined with Juniper Networks’ sophisticated network automation solutions, service and cloud providers are now able to rapidly deliver software-defined network services with guaranteed end-to-end service quality. For our customers, this is a key success factor when rolling out solutions in dynamic environments built on 5G network slicing, Kubernetes, SD-WAN, and hybrid-cloud. We are thrilled to be joining Juniper to provide higher levels of automated assurance to complex networks.”
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