Juniper Unveils Strategic Direction, Products at NYSE

At a well-heeled event at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 29, Juniper Networks unleashed a torrent of new products that company executives say will drive innovation and scalability to meet the demands of a network traffic explosion.

The ambitious rollout, which spans the company's silicon, routers and software products, also gave a big nod in the direction of partners. Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson said the company and the industry must move away from point products to offer a comprehensive platform on which to build new applications, emphasizing that Juniper "can't do it alone." To that end, he announced plans to open up the APIs to the company's Junos networking operating system to allow partners to innovate on top.

"This open approach is enabling an ecosystem," said Johnson. "We think this new approach equals the new network ahead and means more agility for customers, new solutions, [and] new revenue sources and models."

Johnson, flanked by his executive team, walked the room of press and analysts at the NYSE through a multifaceted set of announcements starting with a chip set called Trio that will become the underpinning of all of its products in the future.

Two new routers were announced: the MX3D, which is aimed at the high end of the market, and the MX80, aimed at the entry-level space. The routers offer functionality that allows administrators and service providers to tailor them dynamically for different types of network loads, according to Kim Perdikou, executive vice president and general manager of Juniper's infrastructure product group.

"It's not about how to build a new box, but, How can I give you the control to change the services you are running on the Juniper products?" said Perdikou.

The advantage of such control is the ability to do bandwidth scaling. Junos software within the routers can be programmed to change based on traffic a network is running, such as video versus mobility and data-based packets. In a mild dig at the competition, Perdikou said tests have shown that it would take four Cisco ASR 9010 routers to deliver the performance of a single MX960 3D device.

And, she said, from a cost-savings perspective the new 3D-based routers consume a tenth of the power of the Juniper's original MX960.

She also foreshadowed another initiative, Project Falcon, which is Juniper's mobility play. The company plans to develop and deliver new 3D-based universal edge products targeted specifically at mobile device traffic. However, the routers will not be restricted to handling mobility traffic, but will be able to accommodate other types of services as well, she explained.

"It's not about one application and building one network for that application, it's about building a network for applications not even built yet," she said.

As part of its efforts to turn its operating system into a development springboard for partners, Juniper also announced Junos Space, a development platform that has attracted partners such as Jamcracker, Ankeena Networks and Telchemy already. Junos Space, not yet available, will feature three new applications from Juniper: a provisioning application called Ethernet Activator that can be downloaded from www.juniper.net; an application called Route Analyzer that is based on technology from partner Packet Design; and finally Service Now, software that transmits information about router problems automatically so that resolution is not delayed waiting for an administrator.

Lastly, Junos Pulse, another pending release, is technology that supports integrated multservices networking clients, cutting down on the siloed number of devices required.

All told, the set of announcements, which also included a preview of Juniper's approach to cloud computing, revealed a company looking to expand its reach into the data center and mobility spaces, joining the likes of Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard.

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