TrustRadius Insights for Juniper SRX are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
The Juniper SRX is a versatile appliance that satisfies various network needs. Users have found it to be an ideal solution for multiple use cases, such as site-to-site VPN endpoints, standard firewalls, and all-in-one router/firewall/switching. It seamlessly integrates into different designs, including Internet GW, DC firewall, DMZ Firewall, North-South Firewall & Router, and edge router/firewall setups.
One of the standout features of the Juniper SRX is its ability to handle advanced routing capabilities like VRFs, BGP, and GRE, while also providing robust security functionalities such as IPSEC, IPS, Security, and URL Filtering. This makes it suitable for edge devices in data centers or cloud environments where routing instances, support for multiple tunneling, and advanced BGP features are crucial. Furthermore, the Juniper SRX can be configured as physical or virtual boxes with active/standby configuration for enhanced high availability.
Users have come to rely on the Juniper SRX series firewalls for a range of applications including edge firewalls, core firewalls, and VPN point-to-point peers. Its cost-effective price point compared to other options makes it an attractive choice for businesses seeking required security measures without breaking the bank. The Junos platform's ease of use allows for smooth adjustments and reversions with change validation and automated rollback to mitigate unintended consequences. With a reputation for versatility and reliability in diverse scenarios such as basic edge routers or full stateful firewalls with BGP peering for high availability use cases, Juniper SRX devices consistently deliver top-notch performance. They pass audits without issues after firmware updates and are employed in applications like connecting buildings using metro ethernet for high reliability through link failover and automatic route injection on failover.
Users find that Juniper network equipment offers great value with its reliability and effectiveness compared to other networking equipment companies. When it comes to enterprise security requirements like securing workloads, limiting access to internal networks, and protecting against threats and malicious users, the Juniper SRX serves as a robust network firewall. Moreover, it facilitates traffic routing to the internet through Network Address Translation. Administrators rely on Juniper SRXs to handle perimeter security measures and enable blocking of traffic based on IP and port for multiple clients. Overall, the Juniper SRX provides an array of use cases with its versatile capabilities and cost-effective security features.
Juniper SRX is used as Network Firewall, which is responsible for securing the workload behind it. It addresses Network Security within the organization, limits the access of the organization's internal network, and secures the enterprise network from threats and from malicious users. Juniper SRX also helped send the traffic to the Internet with the help of Network Address Translation.
Pros
Network Address Translation.
Securing the Enterprise Workload.
Enterprise VPN Connectivity.
Cons
Antivirus Features can be more advanced.
Antispam Filtering features have room for improvement.
Cloud Capabilities.
Likelihood to Recommend
Juniper SRX is well suited for a Service Provider Environment where a high volume of traffic has to pass through the firewall; SRX handles that really well. SRX Network Address Translation (NAT) capabilities are very seamless. SRX also does pretty well in supporting VPN architecture. SRX is less suitable for a typical enterprise environment where multiple capabilities are needed in a single product.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
The Juniper SRX is a very capable firewall & router. It is a versatile appliance that can fit into many designs, it can be placed as an Internet GW, as a DC firewall, as a DMZ Firewall, as a North-South Firewall & Router, as an edge router/firewall. It mainly addresses the need for a L3 feature rich device (VRFs, BGP, GRE...) as well as security features (Security, IPSEC, IPS, URL Filtering, ...).
The combination of routing instances, support for multiple tunneling (Route Based IPSEC, Policy Based IPSEC, GRE, ...) with the advanced BGP features makes the vSRX perfect for an edge device in your DC or Cloud design.
The boxes can be physical or virtual and support active/standby configuration for high availability config.
Pros
Edge Device (Tunneling & Routing)
Routing Instances
Zone Based Firewall
L3 Gateway/Vlan termination
DHCP Server & DHCP Relay
Good support community & Good available documentation
Good support by the Vendor
Cons
The GUI is pretty basic and need some enhancements
Likelihood to Recommend
Juniper vSRX is an excellent edge gateway device. The combination of Tunneling protocols supported and the advanced routing & security features makes it perfect for this kind of deployment. It is available in physical, virtual appliances as well as support on multiple clouds so you can have the same box be your edge gateway in multiple environments for consistency.
It can also work as a Internet Gateway, DMZ Firewall/Router and it would function just fine.
While it can also work as a DC firewall (North-South), the poor GUI will make it harder in the day to day administration for the multiple policies in a DC.
The Juniper platform is one of our core devices for customers through our partner. They have the ability to work in almost any situation we put them into. From basic edge routers to full stateful firewall to BGP peering for high availability use cases. The devices have a good background in security and once updated to the current firmware, have no issues passing audits.
Pros
The ease of use for the CLI is a huge benefit. Unlike the Cisco platform, all changes are implemented in a commit statement vs. live on the box.
The devices hit a price point that is very competitive.
Dynamic routing support is a huge win.
Cons
The areas that can improve are met by higher-level platforms within the Juniper portfolio.
Likelihood to Recommend
Based on a head to head with Cisco ISR platform, it handles very well and exceeds in a few aspects. The ability to attach policy to DNS values is a huge win in the comparison. Juniper embraced the API driven model much easier than Cisco and other vendors, and are able to provide a much better hook-in with that area.
in 2014, our organization did a wholesale forklift of our older network equipment and replaced ALL of it with Juniper gear. We use SRX routers/firewalls/IDP and EX & QFX switches. The smaller SRX-220s are in our 17 branch locations with larger SRX-550s in our 3 data center locations. They are all tied together across a telco's MPLS circuitry and also connected to the Internet to 3rd party partners. Juniper network equipment comprises our entire infrastructure - it has proven to be very reliable and effective, plus has a great ROI, especially when compared to the top networking equipment companies.
Pros
One JUNOS is the Juniper mantra, including for the SRXs. While not entirely true, it comes close enough that if you learn some SRX configuration tricks, they will likely work across all of your SRXs.
Out of the box, with no additional license required, you have a NextGen firewall, by default. You can turn off the firewall and have just a plain ole router.
Cons
Technical support is often lacking. By that, I mean that Tier 1 support frequently has to escalate to the next group. I find that most of my support calls don't get resolved until I hit about Tier 3. Plus it takes minimum of 3 days with medium priority issues.
Automation is very flexible, but because there are so many options, it would great to have a road map to perform the most frequent automation tasks.
Likelihood to Recommend
SRXs seem to be well suited at the enterprise level for plain routers, firewalls, and IDP/IDS. They work well on MPLS and Ethernet, including Internet. I have 3 SRXs also performing edge duty, with 2 in a high availability (HA) cluster. The Juniper line of SRXs provides a good range of scaling from small business to extremely large enterprise. Wire speed is a common comparison factor and Juniper shines in that area.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (201-500 employees)
We use the Juniper SRX platform to connect two buildings with metro ethernet between two buildings, including link failover, provide high reliability between sites. Our carriers drop LACP frames and most other layer-2 uplink aggregation protocols, so we used specific features on the Juniper SRX platform to implement connectivity testing on each end, with automatic route injection on failover.
Pros
The Juniper SRX platform is easy to set up (out of the box).
The support team responds to tickets quickly and with good solutions.
Cons
My only real criticism of the product is that it's hard to figure out how to upgrade the firmware from the CLI via TFTP via the docs, but it works great once you get it sorted.
Likelihood to Recommend
I don't know much about the rest of the line, but if you require a primary branch-grade router with sub-gig throughput and some enterprisey software features, or you need an actual branch router for an office branch, the Juniper SRX is a solid choice. The out-of-box web GUI setup is pretty easy if you choose to set it up as a "real" router, but you can ignore the GUI entirely and configure layer 2/3 ports all you want with a robust CLI.
We use the Juniper SRX for various purposes ranging from dedicated site-to-site VPN endpoints, to standard firewall, to all-in-one router/firewall/switching. We use the Juniper SRX for our own internal use, as well as for our clients.
Pros
Ease and stability of configuration. Automatic rollback makes changes foolproof.
Strong range of hardware options in all tiers.
Common OS and configuration across all models and even other Juniper products.
Cons
Some of the more complex setups (clustered HA, etc.) can be a little difficult to configure.
The lowest-end model that supports true multi-site HA is relatively expensive. It would be nice to have that option in lower models.
Some configuration options (particularly the way address book entries are done) can get tedious and make for very long configs.
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for any application where a firewall or routing is needed.
Compared to other offerings, it is really the best.
The only area where there may be a need for something different is for high-end DDoS protection.
We use the Juniper SRX series FWs as our edge firewalls, core FWs and VPN P2P peers. We use these in our dept, other dept and divisions make their own decisions on products and vendors to suit their specific needs. The SRX provides us the security we require at a price point much better than other options. Once the learning curve is leveled out, the easy of use for making changes or undoing changes is far greater than other manufactures methods. In a 24/7/365 environment, it's critical that changes be made in a timely manner with minimum errors, Junos provides a great way to validate the change and an automated rollback if any unintended outcomes occur.
Pros
The Junos OS provides engineers the ability to review past changes and see who made the change which can be a huge advantage when troubleshooting issues that recently manifested themselves in a network. Not all issues pop up right away, so this is a great tool to see how the environment has changed in the recent past.
Junos uses a 2 config process to make changes and put into operation, a operational config and a proposed config called a candidate config. This allows engineers making changes to see the entire proposed changes and confirm its accuracy prior to implementing.
Configuration changes can be done in several different methods. Once you get comfortable with each, making quick changes can done easily and validated prior to committing to operation.
Cons
There's not a lot about the SRX that I don't like but if I had to say, I'd say the remote access VPN and associated client app needs improvement and by using a 3rd party as the client app provider this made troubleshooting RA issues much more difficult. For this reason, we do not use the SRX for RA VPNs.
Likelihood to Recommend
The Juniper SRX is a great product for almost any deployment, the form factor, the price point, the power and ease of use make it an all purpose FW for any situation.
We have multiple clients that are utilizing Juniper SRXs that we administer, some of which are used for specific depts/uses some of which are for an entire Branch. The business problems that this addresses is perimeter security, allowing you to block traffic based off IP and port.
Pros
These will route your traffic well and support most all major routing protocols.
VPN Termination is straightforward compared to some competitors.
The commit feature on the SRX puts it way ahead in the ability to roll back changes in case of an error/unplanned consequence.
Cons
This is personal preference, but I strongly dislike the XML format that is displayed if you do not use the display set option.
Commands to do some simple operations are much longer/more cumbersome compared to some of its main counterparts.
The lack of application detection is a big knock on these, we ended up replacing the one in my office with a next-gen firewall to give us greater control.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think if you're using it internally, maybe for segregation in the datacenter, this could excel if you're not worrying about application filtering. The firewalling policies are little more cumbersome to configure but are more robust than a basic ACL.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (51-200 employees)