Taking on the Goliath

Suddenly, the well-lit ballroom at the New York Palace Hotel went relatively

dark and a hush descended upon the audience comprising media professionals and

analysts. A light hanging from the ceiling revealed a covered trolley that had

been rolled inside the hall. Junipers CEO Scott Kriens and CTO Pradeep Sindhu

moved toward the trolley and pulled off the cloth to reveal the surprise of the

eveninga range of high-performance Ethernet switches, the EX-seriesannouncing

that the switch was finally on. But honestly, no one seemed to be even a wee bit

surprised.

For quite some time, people who have been tracking the industry have been

predicting that at some point in time Juniper would have to take the logical

next step. The company had proved its mettle in the hi-end router business,

where it had created a name for itself.

In the past, the company partnered with the likes of Ericsson, Lucent, and

Siemens AG to provide network solutions. Thus, in many ways, this is Junipers

first attempt to directly reach out to enterprises instead of service providers.

Yet, the big story lies in the fact that Juniper is finally putting its hat in

the switching ring, where it directly challenges the leader, Cisco.

It has taken over two years for the new line of switching products to be

developed, a bulk of it in India and the US. We made a very conscious decision

to build versus buy, said Hitesh Shah, executive VP and general manager,

Juniper. Meanwhile, Kriens emphasized that speed is the new currency (for

companies).

Yet, it is the very speed that many feel is the bane for Juniper. For

instance, Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, Global Enterprise Research,

Yankee Group, feels that though the product launch by Juniper might be good when

compared to the existing technology, it does seem a tad late. It could easily

be termed as one of the worst kept secrets of the tech industry. Everyone seemed

to know that Juniper would eventually enter the switching market; it was just a

matter of time. I think, by releasing the Nexus high performance switches, Cisco

seems to have stolen the march, he says.

Speed is the new currency, Scott Kriens, CEO, Juniper

Meanwhile, Ray Mota, chief strategist, Synergy Research Group, feels that the

real story is Junos. Juniper is trying to differentiate itself and hence is

repeatedly talking about its OS platform, Junos. The big story isnt switching,

but Juno, emphasizes Mota.

Taking the open architecture further, Juniper has decided to go in for

strategic partner companies, especially those who provide network management

software are now being allowed direct access to Junos through its software

developer kit (SDK). In fact, at its launch in the New York Palace Hotel, three

of the industrys software heavyweightsIBM, Oracle, and Microsoftseemed glad

to share the stage with Juniper.

After pumping in hundreds of millions of dollars developing the EX line of

enterprise switches, Juniper finally agrees that Cisco is a competition. Even

though Cisco was a major player in the router market, Juniper never directly

acknowledged the fact that it was competing with Cisco. But on that January

morning, when Kriens declared that the switch was on, there was open talk of how

the company would counter Cisco.

The big question everyone is asking is whether Juniper has the wherewithal to

openly challenge the networking giant in the switching business. It took only a

few years for Juniper to grab a third of Ciscos shares in the carrier routing

market. Will David be able to defeat Goliath again is a question that will be

answered over the next few quarters.

Shashwat DC



shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in


The author was hosted in New York