As the potential applications of augmented reality, the Internet of Things, cloud utilities and other recent emergences in the tech world drive speculation on the next killer app, the underlying architecture of these excitements is getting a thorough inspection.

At the Juniper NXTWORK 2016 event, Jonathan Davidson, EVP and GM of Development and Innovation at Juniper Networks, Inc., sat down with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to talk about the changing faces of networks, security and data.

Securing the bases

The cohesion and interlacing of digital capabilities was an early point of discussion, though the focus soon moved to the security aspects of these new developments. “Security is the deal,” Davidson emphasized. “That’s the biggest impediment to moving to the cloud, whether public or private.”

And as perception of security is the key to overcoming that impediment, Davidson said that Juniper is asking itself: “How do we help [users] look at the security problem differently?”

He continued: “We wanted to make sure we had an open way of … tying [abilities] together, so you have an open policy for detection,” he said, going on to explain the functionality this opens up for users. “You want to make sure that at the enterprise location, they have the ability to get the latest indicators of [security] compromise.”

Assurance and acquisitions

Currently, ways of enhancing security and understanding how interconnected systems work are something along the lines of trade secrets among the companies developing tomorrow’s solutions, Davidson explained. “I would say that we are in the [data-sharing] mode of private clubs right now, and so the goal would be to get to a point where it’s much more open,” he said. “You can’t have a network without it being secure. You certainly want to make sure that you understand the state of the network, that people are trusted, and that when there’s malware in the network, that it’s automatically detected.”

Beyond the traditional networking, IoT is providing its own challenges. And given how many different platforms and data types are active in the IoT operational spheres, the complexity of their management is on a continuous rise. “There’s not one-size-fits-all [security solution] to the IoT domain,” Davidson acknowledged.

‘Moving over to a software-defined world’

The interview continued on to some of the new developments coming out of Juniper Networks’ labs, including its work to merge packet and optical functionality and its work to lower the cost of hardware and platform accessibility. “The customers that we talk to from an enterprise perspective are very excited,” Davidson noted.

He also shed some light on how Juniper tests the capabilities of its potential partners: “We have a very simple bar when people we want to partner with make claims. … Come in, install it on our network, and let’s see how it runs.”

And as the interview drew to a close, Davidson offered some thoughts on where the big money of networking would be moving in the near future. “I think, from a broad industry perspective, you’re going to see the hyperscale clouds … continue to grow at a massive rate,” he stated.

He also noted that, in all likelihood, now was a do-or-disappear time for the companies that wanted to be competitors in that market. “There is a huge wall to entry in the [hyperscale cloud service provider market], but … if you don’t get started now, the ability to catch up a year or two or three from now is virtually nonexistent.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Juniper NXTWORK 2016 event.

Photo by SiliconANGLE