Juniper Gives OpenDaylight Some LovingJuniper Gives OpenDaylight Some Loving

You ever buy something and decide you hated it when you got it home? That seemed what might be going on with Juniper and OpenDaylight. Juniper is a Platinum Sponsor of the SDN organization, but it's kept the relationship at arm's length.

Now, Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) seems to be warming up to the OpenDaylight Project. Juniper recently named a representative to the project's Technical Steering Committee. And last week it submitted the OpenContrail Plugin to OpenDaylight.

The plug-in would allow Juniper's OpenContrail SDN controller to coordinate with the OpenDaylight SDN controller. The plugin works with Neutron, the networking component of the OpenStack cloud stack. It allows OpenStack, OpenContrail, and OpenDaylight to work together.

Figure 1: Buyer's Remorse Seemed like a nice-looking outfit until I got it home. Image source: Ian Ransley

OpenContrail is the prime manifestation of Juniper's ambivalence toward OpenDaylight. Juniper bought SDN startup Contrail Systems in December 2012 for $176 million cash and stock. It released Contrail's SDN controller as open-source. (See Juniper Buys Contrail for (More) SDN Smarts and Defining SDN & NFV.)

And Juniper is also backing OpenDaylight -- another open-source SDN controller. As a Platinum sponsor, Juniper pays $500,000 per year to the project and is committed to dedicating 10 full-time equivalent staff, usually developers, but potentially involved in test or documentation, OpenDaylight Project executive director Nicholas "Neela" Jacques tells Light Reading.

Further complicating matters: Juniper has reportedly failed to meet its 10-person commitment to staffing OpenDaylight, and has forbidden employees from working with OpenDaylight capabilities that might conflict with OpenContrail.

"Factually speaking, you haven't seen a ton of activity from Juniper in the OpenDaylight Project," says Jacques. He's encouraged by recent activity from Juniper. "I think there is tremendous potential for Juniper to get more involved in OpenDaylight. I'm going to take the optimistic side. I think and believe they've been thinking along the right lines."

I asked Juniper for comment; its PR department sent back the following statement, attributed to Jennifer Lin, senior director of product management for Juniper and OpenDaylight Board member:

In addition to Lin, last month Juniper named Kent Watsen as its representative to the OpenDaylight Technical Steering Committee.

— Mitch Wagner, , West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

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