Juniper Networks has announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is building a high-performance network and data center infrastructure using switching, routing and security solutions from Juniper Networks. MCIT has selected Juniper to create the infrastructure as a platform for the Kingdom's country-wide e-Government project called "Yesser," which will enable many other government departments to interact with each other and citizens online.

By integrating numerous information and communication technologies, Saudi Arabia's e-Government program is expected to significantly increase the Kingdom's return on investment (ROI) in its networks, providing faster, easier-to-use services and transactions for government organizations and their commercial and constituent clients.

MCIT is responsible for the deployment and management of IT and network-based services across the Kingdom, including broadcast, digital and telephony activities. As part of its mission, MCIT is focusing on the integration of services that affect as many citizens as possible and help to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's continued socio-economic development.

"Our e-Government initiative is designed to raise the productivity and efficiency of the public sector in Saudi Arabia and further improve the quality of life and value we can deliver to our citizens," said Ahmad Y. Alkhiary, assistant director general, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "By introducing services through electronic transactions, we can utilize information technology to its best advantage and also control costs. The Juniper Networks solution for MCIT will reduce the cost and complexity of our data center network, delivering a dynamic, flexible and automated solution without sacrificing performance."

The MCIT e-Government program will leverage Juniper Networks EX4200 Series Ethernet Switches with virtual chassis fabric technology to provide high availability for MCIT's hosting services at the data center and among its agencies. Juniper Networks J Series Services Routers will be installed as a branch deployment to standardize service delivery and provide stability and efficiency for all agencies and the central site. Additionally, Juniper Networks M Series Multiservice Edge Routers will provide advanced routing with carrier-class reliability for the high-performance network.

Juniper Networks Network and Security Manager and STRM Series Security Threat Response Manager solutions will also be used in the e-Government program for centralized configuration and threat, compliance and log management to maximize end-to-end network security and performance. Juniper Networks SSG Series Secure Services Gateways and ISG Series Integrated Security Gateways will provide complete protection against all types of internal, external, current and emerging network- and application-layer attacks. Juniper Networks SA Series SSL VPN Appliances provide remote users secure access to corporate resources from any Web browser.

Juniper's routing and switching platforms run on Junos software, Juniper's single-source operating system, enabling MCIT to seamlessly and cost-effectively deploy and accelerate its next-generation network services and improve reliability and performance of the network.

"MCIT understands the strategic importance of the network and the tremendous long-term value in leveraging it to improve employee productivity, optimize the user experience while simplifying the network to minimize the total cost of operations and raise customer satisfaction through high-quality online services," said Andy Ingram, vice president of product marketing and business development, Fabric and Switching Technologies, Juniper Networks. "Juniper's solutions are helping the Saudi Arabian government and its residents through this ambitious e-Government program, creating an innovative and operationally efficient network environment."