This is a guest blog post. Views expressed in this post are original thoughts posted by João Silveira Campos Netto, technical director, ACTAR, Brazil. These views are his own and do not represent the views of his company.
Last week during Rio’s famous Carnival, I watched an incredible parade of floats pass by. Each one unique and original, but none that quite caught my attention like the portable soccer field did. It was a veritable soccer party on wheels! And, oddly or not, it made me think of Firefly. Just like this mobile soccer field, Firefly offers me my own mobile security lab. Thanks, Firefly.
As a Juniper Elite reseller partner in Brazil, I focus on solving enterprise customers’ security challenges and feel obligated to sing the praises of the newly launched Juniper Networks Firefly suite.
Firefly Perimeter has definitely made my job a whole lot easier. Customers with busy schedules can often not make it to my permanent lab. With Firefly, that’s no longer an issue, as I can upload a Firefly instance on my laptop via VMware Fusion and deliver an impressive demo at the customer’s own site in a matter of minutes. My laptop is now my lab. It travels with me, just as the soccer float traveled along the parade route. When customers see me effortlessly bring up a firewall, the intrigue—and the selling—begins.
In the past, I’ve found that customers have preconceived notions of firewalls, based on the products they have deployed. Firefly is giving them a fresh perspective, as it elevates firewall standards to a whole new level. With competitors’ firewalls, customers have to ensure that the hardware specifications are accurately met before a firewall can function. Firefly Perimeter, on the other hand, offers greater flexibility, running on your PC. Or a Mac mini. Or a standard x86 server.
Another great advantage is that Firefly Perimeter is based on Juniper's SRX Services Gateways code and delivers similar networking and security features—such as routing, NAT and VPN—as the Branch SRX. If my customers want to run a hybrid environment or run separate virtual and physical environments, they can essentially run the same commands.
Managing hundreds of thousands of VMs in a data center can become a nightmare without the right tools. Junos Space Virtual Director simplifies the lifecycle management of Firefly VMs. I get to really amaze my customers by configuring and deploying multiple firewalls in a blink of an eye with Junos Space Virtual Director management application without having to procure an appliance or deal with hardware compatibility issues like many of the competitors that I come across.
Without a doubt, not only does the Firefly suite provide great value to the customer, but it’s also tremendously improved my productivity. I play around with Firefly any opportunity I get just because the product has so much to offer. Just like there are different types of revelers at the same carnival, there are several key features on Firefly. It can keep me entertained on nights and weekends, while selling itself the rest of the time.