The network has changed a lot recently, with 10 years’ worth of developments packed into just 2 or 3. Those changes have been in specific network domains. The industry has grown out of the “just put another rack in” approach, because putting another rack in does not necessarily equate to gaining more bandwidth or more services or more security. Patching your limping network with a new box will give you a faster limping network.

The rise of systemic networking has in turn given rise to the Juniper Networks warrior. While it’s not a given that they know more than or are better than other vendors’ professional installers, Juniper Networks warriors think in terms of network platforms and how the entire architecture works for the client. They think in terms of extra capacity in the near future and long-term scalability for the client. They also think in terms of domains: the needs for the service provider edge are different than those of a campus or branch network, but both might use the MX480. For a Juniper Networks warrior, the deployment adapts to the domain rather than the domain bending to accommodate what the deployment can’t do.

An explosion of system-wide architectures and network deployments has occurred in the past five years, and I have seen it happen firsthand as a professional services networking engineer (and trainer). I am one of many, and I have encountered both warriors who are umpteen times smarter than I, and others who I have had to drag along by the scruff of the neck. Our numbers are growing.

This book presents a series of network engineer’s travelogues that I hope will entertain and illuminate—they show specific configurations in this new world, where a systemic approach is actually cheaper, easier, and better than squeezing in another rack.