GCI Revamps Managed Services Delivery with Juniper Networks’ SD-WAN

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 22, 2018 -- Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that GCI, Alaska’s largest telecommunications company, has deployed Juniper’s Contrail SD-WAN to rapidly create innovative new service offerings and expand into new markets with its virtual managed service platform, CloudFlex® SD-WAN.

Service providers are looking to diversify business models in order to break the dependence on mere connectivity, creating new value in an era of dramatically rising network traffic, enterprise cloud application use and operating costs. Service providers must offer customers contextual services to thrive in this new era; however, the prevalence of closed, proprietary customer premises equipment (CPE) restricts scalability, slows time to revenue and limits innovation.

GCI’s CloudFlex®, enabled by Juniper’s Contrail SD-WAN, comprised of Contrail Service Orchestration, the NFX250 Network Services Platform, the SRX Series Services Gateway and the vSRX Virtual Firewall, allows the telecommunications leader to offer enterprises new services, such as managed SD-WAN, managed security and other virtual network functions in the future without needing to install physical appliances on-site and dispatching humans to provision the service. This new level of automation, based on centralized orchestration with end-to-end automation, will allow GCI to expand into regions across the United States, where it previously could not with a hardware-centric network. With Juniper, GCI expects to reduce provisioning times for its customers by more than half and simplify operations by cutting service-fulfillment costs by more than 60 percent.

“Service providers simply cannot rely on selling only connectivity to drive growth in a world where customers demand contextual services that add real value to their business or personal lives,” said Sally Bament, vice president, service provider marketing at Juniper Networks. “Those that don’t move up the value chain will get left behind in this evolving reality, but it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. And the network shouldn’t be a hindrance to getting there. We’re thrilled to work with GCI on reinventing their network and infusing automation so it can play a crucial role in the next generation of telecommunications.”

“GCI is ushering in a new era of what it means to be a digital service provider and looked to Juniper as a partner to deliver managed services even more effectively,” said John Barnhardt, vice president of business product development at GCI. “CloudFlex enables GCI to provide our customers with new services faster than ever before with the convenience of using just one appliance versus a whole server rack.”

Additional Resources:

• Contrail SD-WAN
• Contrail Service Orchestration
• NFX Series Network Services Platform
• SRX Series Services Gateway
• vSRX Virtual Firewall
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About Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks simplifies the complexities of networking with products, solutions and services in the cloud era to transform the way we connect, work and live. We remove the traditional constraints of networking to enable our customers and partners to deliver automated, scalable and secure networks that connect the world. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on Twitter and Facebook.

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Media Relations:
Michelle Zimmermann
Juniper Networks
(408) 936-9291
[email protected]