7.5. Conclusion

EX platforms provide a rich set of IP routing right out of the box, with no “routing-enabled” images or messy software trains to wade through.

Routing is one of those things that is hard to get right. At a small scale, the situation may be forgiving, but history shows that many switch vendors tried to become core class routers—and they have all failed. With the EX, however, you have a reverse case of carrier-class, Internet core-proven IP routing that happens to ship with your Ethernet switch because it’s already in JUNOS. While the EXs have plenty of room to mature and grow into more Layer 2 features, they kind of had Layer 3 covered from day one.