Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) says it can now offer carriers what is essentially a prefab content delivery network (CDN) package, having acquired the rights to a service management layer from BitGravity Inc. , the CDN specialist owned by international service provider Tata Communications Ltd. .

The deal, being announced Monday, came about because BitGravity has been a Juniper customer. Its service management layer is already "battle tested" with Juniper's Media Flow product line, says Tom Fountain, vice president of Juniper's Content and Media business unit.

The service management layer includes functions such as network monitoring and reporting, and it provides operator and customer interfaces -- it's a type of abstraction layer, in other words. It completes Juniper's ability to offer all the tools to build and run a CDN, Fountain says.

Media Flow products that incorporate BitGravity technology will be announced sometime later this year, Fountain says. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed.

Why this matters
Carriers are big on the idea of building their own CDNs -- Tata bought BitGravity, after all -- and vendors are eager to cater to that trend. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) got a head start in 2009 by acquiring Velocix, but Juniper claims it's put together a more complete package for a prefab CDN.

The carrier trend could also mean difficulty for CDN providers such as Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) and Limelight Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) in the long term.

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— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading