Juniper Taps Riverbed for Enterprise Help
The companies announced the deal Tuesday afternoon. Juniper's Junos Pulse will become the client application for delivering Riverbed's Steelhead Mobile product. The companies will work together on getting the technologies integrated.
Why this matters
This is about Juniper's ambitions on the enterprise market. WAN optimization, or WAN acceleration, is a big deal there, but it's a market Juniper has never fully gotten a handle on.
It acquired Redline Networks and Peribit Networks in 2005, producing the DX and WX product lines, respectively. The DX was discontinued in 2008, while the WX evolved into the WXC, which is still being offered. (See Juniper Takes Two: Peribit & Redline and Juniper Flatlines Redline.)
The main point, though, is that Juniper has never gained much of a market share in WAN optimization against companies such as Riverbed, Blue Coat Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI) and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO). Beyond the Steelhead Mobile partnership, Juniper might see ways to strengthen its standing here by adding Riverbed's technology.
WAN optimization might not be a cakewalk for Cisco, either. Cisco's 1,300 layoffs, which came to light Monday, are rumored to include its WAN optimization sales team, according to Business Insider.
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— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading
This is an interesting combo....but maybe it would have been better a year ago?
Still, it looks like Juniper has teamed up with the company that looks like it is going to be a long-term market leader.
Now it's a case of looking at what happens to the WAN optimization market as a whole... this looks like a market that should have tremendous growth ahead of it still, yet there appear to be signs that suggest it may be slowing down.