Maynooth University: AI-Native Network Agility

University modernizes data center lifecycle management with Juniper Apstra Data Center Director

Optimize resources and enhance agility with intelligent automation.

Industry: Education | Region: EMEA

Juniper Makes Life in the Data Center Easier

Maynooth University, recognized as a top young university in Ireland, is a dynamic, research-led institution attracting students globally. Located near Dublin, it comprises a historic southern campus and a modern northern campus spanning 100 acres. The university relies on Juniper's automated data center network solution to support its academic, research, and administrative needs.

Challenge

"Academia is a tricky environment," stated Peter Gaughran, Senior Infrastructure Specialist at Maynooth University. "Our faculty and researchers have many disparate requests that require bespoke solutions. We needed a modern, flexible data center network with automation that wasn't overly complex for our small team to manage.”

The university's rapid growth and faculty demands outpaced the legacy data center network. Its tiered architecture was complex to manage and expand. Network operations were tedious, requiring extensive command-line work for device configuration. Adding new switches could take over a week, and provisioning new services took weeks. Troubleshooting aging switches was difficult due to a lack of network visibility.

Description of Image: A modern, glass-fronted building representing Maynooth University.

Description of Image: A quote from Peter Gaughran, Senior Infrastructure Specialist at Maynooth University, highlighting the performance of Juniper Data Center Fabric Director and its ability to upgrade switch firmware without downtime, a significant improvement over previous overnight outages.

Peter Gaughran
Senior Infrastructure Specialist,
Maynooth University

Transformation

Maynooth modernized and automated its data center network fabric with Juniper to support the application, communications, and digital needs of 17,500 students and 3,500 faculty and staff.

Juniper Apstra Data Center Director automates all aspects of data center network design, build, and deployment, including Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 operations. The EVPN-VXLAN fabric utilizes Juniper QFX5120 switches for spine and leaf nodes, delivering high throughput, scalability, and resilience for the university's applications and workloads.

Network automation has significantly enhanced the IT team's agility. As Gaughran noted, "We have three people on the networking team and automation helps us keep up with the increasing demands for more services and new research projects.”

Outcomes

Rapid Migration: 1 day to move 10 hosts to the new fabric.
Reliable: 100% consistent, continuous uptime during migration.
Agile: 5x faster provisioning of new services.

Solutions Used: Juniper Apstra Data Center Director, Juniper QFX5120 Switch

Low-Risk, High-Rewards Migration

A demonstration of Data Center Director showcased its capabilities, including automation, real-time visibility, and improved network performance, reinforcing the team's decision. The university used Data Center Director to orchestrate the design and build of the EVPN-VXLAN fabric, employing blueprints for accurate configurations and faster deployment. Data Center Director continuously validates the network's operational state against the blueprint's intent.

“Data Center Director just works,” said Gaughran. “Our everyday life is so much easier.”

Key Takeaways and Outcomes

Description of Image: A quote from Peter Gaughran, Senior Infrastructure Specialist at Maynooth University, explaining how Juniper Data Center Director blueprints simplify device configuration, speed up processes, and reduce the risk associated with network changes.

Peter Gaughran
Senior Infrastructure Specialist,
Maynooth University

Smooth Data Center Transformation

With Data Center Director, Maynooth modernized network operations, benefiting from complete lifecycle automation, enhanced visibility, and improved resilience. The university plans to explore further integration with Juniper's Mist™ cloud-native, AI-native networking platform and Marvis® AI engine, as well as Juniper Data Center Assurance.

Fast, Trouble-Free Workload Migration

Maynooth runs Red Hat virtualization on 10 host servers. Migrating to the new spine-leaf fabric took only one day, with no disruption to application service delivery. This contrasts with the previous environment, where the process would have taken a week and been highly stressful. Gaughran noted, "The guardrails in Data Center Director make it incredibly difficult to make a mistake.”

Enhanced Visibility and Insights

Poor visibility and a lack of insights are no longer issues. Data Center Director identifies root causes of potential problems and sends instant alert notifications. For instance, it pinpointed the cause of an optics issue, enabling a quick resolution.

5x Faster Provisioning

When faculty and researchers require new data center infrastructure, the IT team can now move swiftly. Since implementing Data Center Director, the team can provision new hardware and deploy new services 5x faster than before. Gaughran stated, "Using the templates in Data Center Director gives us confidence and greatly speeds the overall provisioning process."

Juniper Data Center Director

To learn more about Juniper data center solutions, visit: https://www.juniper.net/us/en/solutions/data-center.html

For more on designing, deploying, and operating networks for AI, visit: https://www.juniper.net/us/en/solutions/data-center/ai-infrastructure.html

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