The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information has built a new high-performance network for voice, video and data using an end-to-end integrated infrastructure solution from the Sunnyvale, California-based Juniper Networks, Inc., the leader in high-performance networking, the company announced on Tuesday. The Juniper solution includes switching, routing and security technologies, and has been designed to provide a fast, reliable, secure infrastructure for the ministry's mission-critical network traffic and applications while reducing total cost of ownership. “Rather than upgrade our existing network, we decided to migrate to a more flexible IP network with Juniper that would deliver 55 percent faster performance and security while lowering operating costs by 35 percent,” said Dr. Abdul Aziz Almulhem, chief information and strategy officer, Ministry of Culture and Information. “Juniper's best-in-class network infrastructure solutions deliver the high levels of throughput, reliability and quality of service that we require for our sensitive and bandwidth-hungry applications.” The Ministry of Culture and Information has deployed Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switches and M Series Multiservice Edge Routers in its corporate backbone network. By deploying a switching and routing solution that leverages JUNOS Software- a single source operating system integrating routing, switching, security and network services from Juniper- the Ministry can streamline network operations and improve the availability, performance and security of business applications. A commissioned study has estimated costs savings of using JUNOS Software to be as much as 41 percent. The Juniper Networks SA Series SSL VPN Appliances provide market-leading, browser-based SSL VPN security capabilities to serve the Ministry's remote access needs with best-in class endpoint security, granular access control, and scalability. The SA Series works with the Juniper Networks IDP Series Intrusion Detection and Prevention Appliances to automatically block malicious traffic coming from outside the network, with the Juniper Networks ISG Series Integrated Security Gateway delivering scalable network and application security. Additional security technology implemented includes Juniper Networks NetScreen Series Security Systems with integrated firewall, VPN and traffic management functionality, Denial of Service and Distributed Denial of Service protection at scale to secure the core implementations within The Ministry of Information and Culture's network; and the Juniper Networks WXC Series Application Acceleration Platform, a WAN optimization solution that helps maximize WAN investments and improve application response times for the Ministry's branch offices. “Organizations now demand more from their networks, in terms of simplicity, performance and value for money” said Gert-Jan Schenk, senior vice president of operations EMEA, Juniper Networks. “Juniper Networks high-performance infrastructure solutions help The Ministry of Culture and Information to create an innovative and operationally efficient environment that helps to reduce costs and raise productivity without compromise.” __
