The Cisco killer speaks
Published: 07 Dec 2004 16:45 GMT
Do you feel the trend is working in Juniper's favour?
So far, yes. It depends on which research you look at. But in almost (all research), the slope of that market share shift is positive for Juniper. Frankly, I would rather see a bigger market for everybody, but in the meantime we will take share.
Competition with Cisco is still pretty tight. Does it keep you up at night?
You know, I don't spend that much time thinking about it. This is the honest truth. We have found our best success comes from being most focused on our own planning and execution. When Intel or Microsoft was built, what ultimately made them successful was figuring out how to be the best PC or processor company in the world, not worrying about what IBM, the mainframe company, was doing.
There was an obvious David and Goliath comparison during that time. "Oh gosh, IBM has all this money. How is poor little Microsoft going to ever get out of that shadow?" I think they did it by not worrying about the shadow, because the shadow was cast over on one side, and they were working somewhere else in the sunlight. The only way the shadow can hurt you is if you spend your time worrying about it, which we really don't.
That's a nice philosophy, but Juniper's marketing campaign in The Wall Street Journal definitely pokes fun at the rivalry with Cisco.
Oh, sure, we tactically compete, just because it's easier for people to understand it that way. But strategically we focus on our customers and on answers to their problems. There are catfights out there every day. There is one going on now. In fact, I am sure (there is) more than one somewhere in the world. Those are fun, and there is always going to be competition. Sometimes that will come from a company like Cisco. Other times it will come from a local company.
Juniper obviously thinks security is important. You spent almost $4 billion to buy NetScreen Technologies earlier this year. But can you explain why it's important to networking?
Security enables rapid expansion to the next-generation IP (Internet Protocol) network. The more people trust the network, the more they will use it. The only reason that many companies have private networks is because they don't trust public networks. If and when we prove the secure and assured qualities of the virtual network, more and more people will use it at a faster and faster rate.
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