Nov 13 2008 2:30PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Networking,
Ethernet,
Switches,
Cisco,
Routers,
Metro Ethernet,
Carrier Ethernet,
multi-service edge device
Cisco has announced a new edge router, the 9000, which is widely expected to be the replacement for its aging but important 7600 series. The new box features a card design that gives it a very high per-card capacity, making it capable of supporting the new 100 Mbps Ethernet standard when it is finalized. The box is most likely to be deployed in an edge-of-core or metro-core application, with the latter application focusing on replacing PBT with MPLS inside a metro network. We believe that Cisco will be going full out in 2009 on the metro applications, as well as on “glamour” plays like its deal with the Yankees for an immersive multimedia experience in the stadium.
Sep 16 2008 1:52PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Security,
Switches,
Cisco,
Routers,
Virtualization,
Juniper Networks
Juniper has announced the first major innovation in its Service Layer Technology area, something it calls the Dynamic Services Architecture. This is a new product set, the first of which is the SRX Services Gateway, built on a platform that tightly couples service feature hosting and both signaling and control plane protocol handling. Cards are software-configurable to support multiple services, firewall services being the first announced.
This is the second of Juniper’s announcements that have created a “higher-than-the-network” layer of technology, the first being the company’s support of hosted control plane software for JUNOS. When you add this to the recent management changes at Juniper, it begins to look as though the company may be taking a turn more toward software and “transformation” versus routers and “convergence”.
Aug 1 2008 1:24PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Switches,
Routers,
Verizon
The decision by billionaire Alec Gores to buy the Siemens telecom business may be a signal that the longer-term fundamentals of telecom are stronger than many expect, or it may be an indication that Gores has taken one gamble to many. We have reservations about the space for the next two to three years, the period in which the sorting out of the new revenue paradigm will be essential for carriers to continue their equipment spending on players like Siemens.
There are favorable signs and challenges. Verizon’s report showed that data revenues were up, but the company conceded that most were linked to Blackberry-type phones and laptop access, not to mobile phone data applications, which means they were business related and not consumer. We believe that Siemens was later than most in recognizing the shift to the consumer, and that makes it a harder property to rehab.
Jul 22 2008 6:47PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Networking,
Ethernet,
Switches,
DataCenter
Brocade Communications, a data center fibrechannel switch player, is acquiring Foundry, the Ethernet switch company. The deal is likely to meet little resistance from any regulatory or shareholder perspective and so can be considered done.
We believe this move is a step toward recognizing a major truth of enterprise networking, which is that in market cycles driven by IT factors, as this one is, data center switching is the most likely to lead the networking portion of the purchase cycle. In addition, data center products can pull through products elsewhere (which this deal is clearly banking on), while the opposite is not true.
Given the increased influence of IT in overall technology procurement (and the collateral decline of the influence of networking), we believe this to be a very smart move indeed. This acquisition may lead to some additional consolidation in the LAN switching and data center area as other players make counter-moves.
Mar 26 2008 12:18PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Switches,
Routers,
Juniper Networks
David Yen, a kingpin in Sun’s revitalized microprocessor program, is leaving Sun for Juniper, where he will be an executive VP of Emerging Technologies, a move that certainly means that Juniper will be doing more original work with microprocessors and/or network processors. There has been a lot of new energy at Juniper in recent months, suggesting that the company is about to make some aggressive moves in the market to sustain its growth and take advantage of loss of market momentum by its mobile-exposed competitors.
Feb 28 2008 2:10PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Switches,
Nortel,
Carrier Ethernet
Nortel, whose performance in the last quarter was significantly below expectations, is pinning a lot of its hopes on grabbing a major share of the Carrier Ethernet market. A major barrier to Nortel’s goals is a lack of company perception on just what that market is, arising out of the same kind of product-group parochialism that we have cited for Alcatel-Lucent. Metro infrastructure is a single strategy, not a combination of three or four technology- and customer-specific approaches, and without that understanding you cannot hope to succeed. With its advanced PBT position, Nortel is well positioned to address this “real” metro market, but as a company its strategies have fallen behind its technologies.
Jan 30 2008 3:48PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Ethernet,
Switches,
Juniper Networks
Juniper announced its long-awaited EX series of enterprise Ethernet switches, and marketing partnerships with Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. The move to enterprise switching was expected but the partnerships are more a surprise, though how well they will pan out for Juniper is yet to be seen. Juniper lost its COO, Steven Elop, to Microsoft in January, and it may be that there are links between the move and the partnership, though details again are lacking at this point.
Nov 21 2007 1:53PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Switches,
Routers,
Carrier Ethernet
Research is confirming what many have noticed anecdotally: Cisco, Juniper and Nortel are gaining in the carrier router-switch market and Alcatel-Lucent is declining. The shift is likely driven in large part by the shifts toward Carrier Ethernet deployment from traditional routing, a shift that Nortel stands to gain the most from because of PBT. Nortel showed the largest gains, too. Juniper just announced an Ethernet product, and it showed gains as well. Cisco has an Ethernet line and had a strong showing. While Alcatel-Lucent has Ethernet products, it has been submerging them in its IPTV positioning. We believe this shift will not stop at the end of the year, and that it will put the greatest pressure on Alcatel-Lucent. But it will also pressure Juniper since that company has no PBT capability in its Ethernet product. PBT’s features and perceived future value are the real drivers of the change, make no mistake.