Senior Network Planning Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Scalable with an easy setup and good security
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is pretty simple."
  • "Some people complain that the solution tends to have a steep learning curve. It could be because most people have basic familiarity with Cisco or other similar products and maybe have never worked closely with Juniper products."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution as a firewall for security purposes in order to keep our organization safe.

What is most valuable?

In general, the entire security solution is great, from end to end.

The initial setup is pretty simple.

What needs improvement?

The solution works quite well. I can't think of any features that are lacking. I don't know where it could be improved.

Some people complain that the solution tends to have a steep learning curve. It could be because most people have basic familiarity with Cisco or other similar products and maybe have never worked closely with Juniper products. I don't find that it's a problem, however, I have heard this mentioned as an issue for some people.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for a couple of years.

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Juniper vSRX
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. It doesn't have bugs or glitches and doesn't seem to crash at all. Its performance is great. You can rely on it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution can scale if you need it to. That's not a problem.

We do have plans to increase the usage of the product in the future.

How are customer service and support?

We have technical experts who have helped us in the past. They were quite supportive. They were both responsive and knowledgable and we've been satisfied with eh level of service provided.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before we started using Juniper, we used Huawei Firewall and its related services. We switched as we found that Juniper offered a much better service. From our perspective, everything about Juniper is better. Huawei is lacking in a few areas.

How was the initial setup?

The solution isn't too complex to set up. It's pretty straightforward.

The deployment, from beginning to end, takes about six months.

We had about 20 experts on the deployment project.

What about the implementation team?

We used a solution provider to assist us with the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with Juniper.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using.

We'd recommend the solution to other organizations.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate the solution an eight.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at Alpha Group
Real User
Top 20
Excellent dashboard system with a straightforward initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "We like the solution’s protocol and its dashboard system."
  • "The solution should consider improving its licensing policies."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to block unwanted sites on our internal platform.

What is most valuable?

We like the solution’s protocol and its dashboard system.

What needs improvement?

The solution should consider improving its licensing policies. It would be better if we could make a one-time payment for the hardware.

For how long have I used the solution?

Our organization has been using the solution for about three and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is not a scalable solution since it depends on the hardware. In our organization, 500 people use the solution. We have no plans to increase the number of users.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

It took about three to four days to deploy the solution. We hired third-party consultants to deploy the solution the first time.

The deployment model depends on our operations. We needed only one engineer to deploy the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have purchased a one-year license for the solution. The solution could have been cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the solution a nine on ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Juniper vSRX
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about Juniper vSRX. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
770,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Information Security Engineer at SOCIALEYEZ
Real User
Straightforward implementation but GUI needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup was very straightforward. There was no problem. The initial deployment took about one hour."
  • "They really need to improve the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for network authentication, what you use while accessing the network. In general, controlling the traffic going inside the enterprise and off it.

What is most valuable?

I find the VPN and the cluster the most valuable features.

What needs improvement?

The syndication or domain controllers, quick policies, and user rules - like being able to see the IP source and destination could be improved. This feature already exists in Palo Alto.

They really need to improve the GUI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is getting better. It has got some bugs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. It's very flexible, but the problem is the GUI is not very easy to use.

How are customer service and technical support?

They have good technical support but we very rarely use technical support. We go through vendors.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. There was no problem. The initial deployment took about one hour. One person is enough for deployment and maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented the solution myself.

What other advice do I have?

In Saudi Arabia, Juniper has a problem with marketing. They're less well known. A lot of companies are changing or going with Palo Alto.

With the GUI, the firewall is not easy to use. It doesn't cover all the features. Juniper should enhance the GUI, and make it easier to use. Both the firewall and virtual security are hard to use. It's not easy to configure it and not friendly to users.

I would advise for those thinking about using the product, to make sure they learn as much as possible, and also look to use a redundancy.

I would rate this solution seven out of 10.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Senior Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Reliable, easy to setup, reasonably-priced, and the support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboard, customization, API, and pricing are good."
  • "VPN access is an area that needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We are Value Add Resellers and we provide the Cloud for our customers.

We set up Amazon Web Services as the cloud for our customers.

What is most valuable?

It's standard, with standard routing.

Juniper vSRX has everything at the moment; they are covering it all and getting into automation, which is great.

The dashboard, customization, API, and pricing are good.

What needs improvement?

VPN access is an area that needs improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Juniper vSRX for four years.

This is a product that I have been using it ever since it was released.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Juniper vSRX is scalable. 

We have four users in our organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support has been very supportive.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did not use a vendor team, reseller, or an integrator. The implementation was done in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

I can recommend Juniper vSRX to others who are looking at implementing it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Expert - architect of ICT systems at NASK
Real User
Cost-effective with easy deployment and high scalability

What is most valuable?

The tool could be used without additional work. It is easy to implement.

What needs improvement?

The IDs of interfaces that are implemented inside of the vSRX maybe should be extended in some cases because there is the imitation of virtual interfaces.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Juniper vSRX as an end user for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution’s scalability is high because more than 4000 elements can be deployed.

Around 100 users are using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is fine.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. We use the special scripts to configure it. It is automatic to configure and implement. 

Documentation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The tool is sold in a package. Hence, the individual price is very low.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the Juniper vSRX solution. Its effectiveness depends on the architect's expertise. We've encountered no issues with its deployment in our system. Our collaboration with Juniper has been satisfactory in terms of quality. However, it's essential to consider cloud technology within such architectures. The current solution lacks scalability and might need to be reevaluated based on emerging trends in security with the increasing shift toward cloud technology.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user685407 - PeerSpot reviewer
Firewall Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have been able to solve a lot of connectivity issues with these firewalls that the bigger name devices didn’t handle so well.

How has it helped my organization?

I can’t really say a firewall improves anything other than security, but we have been able to solve a lot of extranet connectivity issues with these firewalls that the bigger name devices didn’t handle so well.

It is bomb proof as seen by the fact they are still in production use today. A simple human friendly command structure, making CLI edits and debug sessions easy and quick, means that they just don’t fail.

The SRX is a different device. It is much more sensitive to unexpected power loss so we had to RMA several after unexpected site power outages. The command structure is also different so that I always need my cheat sheet when debugging on them.

The NSM is its own beast. It's a 10 when it’s running properly, gives you all the info you need easily to make and document edits and monitor status of devices, but keeping it running well is almost a job in itself. It doesn’t manage its own database very well and it gets slow and unresponsive, often requiring user intervention on the server backend.

What is most valuable?

Currently we use Juniper products, SSG and SRX firewalls in about a 50/50 mix both standalone and in HA clusters. We also use their NSM for device management and logging.

The SSG models are mostly EOL and are being replaced with new “Next Gen” firewalls. The SRX models will likely continue to be used internally as support will remain available for some time.

We only use the firewall and virtual router options and they do what we need:

  • The firewall is easy to configure and testing shows we are blocking the threats.
  • The virtual routers make this solution a one box answer for our needs and simplify our internal networking. As they are built into the devices, they allow you to move and separate traffic in a number of ways on one set of hardware.

They constitute a solid working solution that has been able to cope with any of the unique challenges that have come up.

What needs improvement?

While the OS supports a pretty full UTM option, we found in testing that the hardware was not powerful enough to run with all the bells and whistles turned on for the amount of traffic we process. So we use other hardware for those services meaning it’s not a deal breaker for us.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no issues at all with the SSG models and the SRX model only had problems with sudden power loss occasionally.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The only issue was that the Network Security Manager (which is EOL) was sold as supporting over 125 devices. That may be true if you are just managing the configurations but once you add in monitoring and logging it’s really only happy with fewer than 40 devices, as the database grows too big to deal with and needs constant maintenance.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate the technical support as average, as the calls were responded to quickly but as usual it depends on who you happen to get on the phone that day. Some were very good, others times I had to ask for a different engineer to join the call.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This solution was in place when I started so I cannot answer this question.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward and to get into a cluster consists of about ten commands. The hardest part is deciding on active/active or active/passive for your solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I’m not involved in the financial side of the purchase. Our buyers handle that. Support and licensing comes in the usual tiers, SLA for repairs and/or options turned on in the device.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I know they left Check Point and looked at Cisco products before choosing Juniper, but that decision pre-dates my involvement.

What other advice do I have?

I would say get an SSG but they are EOL so for the SRX make sure you have the recovery boot system configured and a way to remote console the device.
I know this sounds like a major problem but it’s not been that big an issue. We run HA and have same day replacement on them so if we lose one it’s not a major outage, just more work to do.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Controlled traffic for site-to-site connections with flexible commit features
Pros and Cons
  • "The architecture of the OS in Juniper is very good. It's flexibility, scalability, and the technicality is also good."
  • "In the next release, I would like to see improvements made to the GUI because it isn't very good."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is to load traffic for our RH team so that they can connect to our servers on our other sites. 

I load source addresses to connect to the destination address with applications such as HTTP, HTTPs, and SSH to connect the servers to the RH team.

What is most valuable?

The flexibility of the commit check and the commit confirmed commands is very good. The design of the forwarding plane and the control plane in the operating system is very important in performing when we have a large amount of traffic.

The architecture of the OS in Juniper is very good. It's flexibility, scalability, and the technicality are also good.

What needs improvement?

The support can be improved. 

The GUI needs to be improved, as Cisco is more advanced with their ASDM platform.

In the next release, I would like to see improvements made to the GUI because it isn't very good.

I would like them to discard some of the existing commands because we have to delete them. It should be more practical.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Juniper for more than two years.

The versions that I have worked with are the SRX 550, 3600 and 5800.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have dealt with Cisco's Technical support as well as the Technical support from Juniper, and there are some differences. Cisco is more available, and the degree of competence regarding our case is better.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used both Cisco and Juniper products. When comparing them, there are differences with the command line interface. Cisco is more advanced.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

After some research, I think that the cost of Juniper is more than Check Point, Palo Alto, and Fortinet. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Juniper because they have a good product, especially the 5800 version. 

This is a good product for internet service providers.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user893853 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A good solution with lots of features but very bad technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a few valuable features that offer very good quality on the solution. Especially NetScreen. We used to use NetScreen for the the product line. It was a very mature solution, very robust, easy to configure, easy to manage, etc. It made it easy to do everything."
  • "We have some weird errors and some weird behavior on the solution occasionally. The device gets buggy without anyone touching it. It would work and then suddenly stop. Sometimes you need to just move the cards out and restart it again, and it will work. The solution itself, the hardware and the software, there must be some bugs that need to be dealt with."

What is our primary use case?

My company is an IAP so we use the solution for virtual security to segregate work.

What is most valuable?

There are a few valuable features that offer very good quality on the solution. Especially NetScreen. We used to use NetScreen for the product line. It was a very mature solution, very robust, easy to configure, easy to manage, etc. It made it easy to do everything. 

What needs improvement?

We have some weird errors and some weird behavior on the solution occasionally. The device gets buggy without anyone touching it. It would work and then suddenly stop. Sometimes you need to just move the cards out and restart it again, and it will work. The solution itself, the hardware and the software, there must be some bugs that need to be dealt with. 

We are using high-end devices. For the high-end devices, all the features are there; we don't need more features. What we need are for the features we have to work exactly as we want them to. Especially on the IT desk. There's something wrong between the hardware and the software. As I mentioned, some hardware is not working correctly in some integrations, and I'm not sure why. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about two years.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very bad. They never respond to any ticket you open, although we pay for the support. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a little bit complex.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant to assist with implementation. In retrospect, we probably could have handled it ourselves.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Juniper vSRX Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Juniper vSRX Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.