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Last December, Juniper acquired<\/a> the cloud operations management and optimization startup AppFormix<\/a>\u00a0and said that it planned to integrate it with its own Contrail product line. That integration is moving swiftly, but under the aegis of Juniper, it\u2019s also adding new features to its platform that are meant to better support Juniper\u2019s customers. The first of these is an integration with VMware\u2019s vSphere virtualization platform, which the company announced today.<\/p>\n In its first incarnation, AppFormix focused strongly on private clouds running OpenStack and Kubernetes, as well the largest public clouds from Amazon, Google and Microsoft. \u201cBut most enterprises are using VMware,\u201d AppFromix founder\u00a0Sumeet Singh told me. \u201cThat was always a gap in our solution.\u201d So after the acquisition by Juniper, the first set of new resources the team got went into adding support for VMware into the company\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n The idea behind AppFormix is to give enterprises not only better insights into the applications they are running \u2014 even if they span different clouds \u2014 but also to allow them to essentially put on autopilot their cloud and the software-defined networks that tie their machines together. Juniper likes to call this the \u201cself-driving network<\/a>,\u201d that is, a networking setup that is smart enough to monitor itself and, if things go wrong, automatically correct issues and defend itself from possible intruders.<\/p>\n With the added support for VMware, enterprises can now use a single tools to monitor and optimize their hybrid cloud setups across platforms.<\/p>\n Juniper, which counts among its clients a large number of large telecom operators that are currently looking at modernizing their networks, acquired AppFormix to get a head-start in this space. Many of these telcos, as Singh told me, are currently using OpenStack in production (and indeed, the telco industry was among the first and most enthusiastic backer of the OpenStack project), and some are now starting to experiment with Kubernetes for managing software containers (either on bare metal or using OpenStack, too).<\/p>\n \u201cAt AppFormix, we got a number of really big customers,\u201d Singh said. \u201cBut part of the reason we decided to join hands with Contrail and Juniper is that it\u2019s in Juniper\u2019s DNA to have these close relationships with all of these large telcos that are spread all over the world. With Juniper, we\u2019ve been able to attract many of these telcos as well \u2014 not just in America but also in Asia and South America.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n