Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) is touting a new marketing strategy that it hopes will help it get in the door of incumbent carriers.

The company has created a new service model -- called the MINT (Model for Integrated Network Transformation) -- that helps carriers create new data services revenue and save on operational costs, according to company officials (see Juniper Outlines Consolidated Vision).

The strategy itself is very different from Juniper’s traditional marketing campaigns. In the past, the company has highlighted its technical features as it tried to win over Internet service provider engineers. But now the company is targeting carrier executives who are less interested in faster routers than they are in generating new revenue and saving on operational costs.

“One thing that Juniper is trying to do is improve its executive-level relationships at large carriers,” says Mark Bieberich, an analyst with Yankee Group. “This model or vision that they are proposing resonates more with the upper echelon of large carrier organizations.”

As a result, Juniper is trying to change its image from Internet router supplier to network solutions provider. This means focusing attention on its multiservice strategy. Carriers agree that Internet Protocol (IP) and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) are the future, but they aren’t willing to give up their old Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay networks just yet (see Carrier Tech Architects Pipe Up).

Most incumbent carriers are planning to deploy multiservice gear next year as they build out their data networks. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) announced its strategy last month, sending the stock market into a frenzy (see Verizon Talk Stokes Stocks). SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) will soon announce a new data strategy; and there are rumors that AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) has recently issued a detailed RFP (request for proposal) that includes multiservice and MPLS routing and switching functionality.

Juniper has already made significant headway with incumbent carriers overseas. Just today it announced that Baharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India's largest telecom operator, has selected Juniper Networks M-series routers for India's first nationwide IP/MPLS network (see BSNL Picks Juniper Routers).In the end, what all these carriers are looking for is an infrastructure that can help them generate new revenue through new services while also lowering their operational costs.

“Juniper has realized that they need to communicate their message to the executives and not just the router jockeys,” says Michael Howard, an analyst with Infonetics Research Inc. “Even though the CTO may be fired up about a certain technology, it’s the CFOs that have the final say. It’s the reality if the new telecom age.”

But Juniper hasn’t completely abandoned its focus on technology. Buried within its new marketing message, the company today announced significant new product upgrades. Its IP routers family now comes with ATM functionality and finer-grained Quality of Service (QOS), and it includes an integrated policy management platform called the SDX. Juniper has also announced plans to integrate with third-party Open Source Solutions (OSS) vendors.

Let’s look at these one by one:

If Juniper’s message about service creation and multiservice capabilities sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Network Equipment Technologies Inc. (net.com) (NYSE: NWK), which has used its ATM expertise to develop its service creation platform, has been banging on this drum for over a year now. Other companies, including CoSine Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: COSN), Nortel Networks Corp. (Shasta)(NYSE/Toronto: NT), and Redback Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: RBAK), have focused on products targeted specifically at service creation.

But analysts believe that Juniper’s adoption of a service-creation message shows that new multiservice features will be router-based.

“We’ll see more and more services added to routers rather than creating separate boxes to handle these functions,” says Infonetics' Howard. “The [Nortel] Shasta’s of the world may not be needed much longer.”

— Marguerite Reardon, Senior Editor, Light Reading
www.lightreading.com