juniper

I just returned from a two-day industry and analyst event hosted by Juniper Networks. Last year, Juniper held its conference in swanky Dana Point, but this year's event was held at the San Mateo Marriott near the San Francisco airport.

A sign of the times? Definitely.

After a killer 2008 in which the network-equipment maker increased revenue 26 percent over the previous year, the company is now managing through troubled economic waters like everyone else. What's Juniper's strategy now? New CEO Kevin Johnson laid out it at the event. His plans include:

• Staying focused. Don't … Read more

It's said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Vyatta, an open-source competitor to Cisco and Juniper, has now taken of several recent steps toward commodifying the existing networking software market, including a deal with the New Mexico Court System.

The reason for choosing Vyatta over Cisco and Juniper? As described in a case study (PDF), Vyatta delivered great functionality at a super-low price, according to Sam Noble, senior network system administrator, New Mexico Courts:

The No. 1 reason we went with Vyatta was the flexibility and the peace of mind, knowing that if … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

If there were any lingering doubts about whether Amazon Web Services were enterprise-ready, they dissolved this week once IBM became a partner.

And now that Amazon and IBM have teamed up, a picture of multiple computing clouds is emerging.

Amazon Web Services teamed up with IBM to provide pay-as-you-go access to Big Blue's database servers, Lotus, and Websphere middleware running on Novell Suse Linux. Those applications will run on Amazon's EC2.

While much of the details have been covered, what's notable is the vision. IBM's cloud … Read more

First, a mea culpa. Last night I commented on Gordon Haff's analysis of the Tivoli announcements from IBM Pulse, the company's big service management conference in Las Vegas this week. I wrote the bulk of that post much earlier in the day, and stand by its contents as it applies to those specific items. However, I should have looked one more time at my Google Reader, as there was much, much more to the IBM announcement. This post is a review of that announcement as a whole.

Oh, and all comments on any of my posts are my own opinion. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of my employer, Cisco Systems.

IBM greatly strengthened its position in the world of cloud computing this week. What IBM announced, if you haven't seen it already, is a laundry list of product and service enhancements and extensions aimed at meeting the needs of cloud computing customers. Most of the announcement was more of the same point products and global services offerings we have come to know and love from IBM, and I commented on them last night.

The heart of the announcement, however, was a partnership with Juniper Networks to "demonstrate how a hybrid cloud could allow enterprises to seamlessly extend their private clouds to remote servers in a secure public cloud..." This is the announcement I have been looking for from IBM.… Read more

Amber Ettinger, better known as "Obama Girl," has teamed up with Stickam for coverage of the presidential inauguration. Live coverage will be streamed live Monday at 8 p.m. EST from InauguralFest, and viewers will be able to see what she is doing all day at the inauguration starting at 10 a.m. EST Tuesday.

Integrated Media Measurement, an online research firm, found (PDF) that women between the ages of 15 and 48 tend to watch a television show and surf the Web an average of 17.5 minutes per day, while men do the same for just … Read more

This may be nothing but blogosphere blah-blah-blah, but a colleague sent me a note Thursday stating that Juniper Networks' share price fell earlier this week because of a rumor that its customer Google is actually building its own router.

This Google news was attributed to multiple sources including at least one within Cisco Systems, according to a story Monday on SDTimes. CNET News sister site BNET contacted Google about the rumor: "The answer was the now-standard 'It's our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation.'"

OK, so my guess is that this rumor is probably true--with … Read more

One challenge in testing networking products is measuring vendors' claims of how green their products can be. Most of the time, during the course of reviewing, I just have to take vendors at their word. But it seems this might change in the near future.

On Tuesday, Ixia, a global provider of IP performance test systems, announced that its IxGreen solution and iSimCity facility will be used to measure the energy efficiency of Juniper Network's T1600 core router, a massive router used to handle huge corporate networks.

In addition, Ixia and Juniper Networks announced the formation of the ECR Initiative … Read more

CEO Steve Ballmer's message to Microsoft employees on the departure of senior executive Kevin Johnson and a divisional reorganization. The e-mail was first published by All Things D.

From: Steve Ballmer Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:30 PM To: Microsoft - All Employees Subject: FY09 Strategic Update

With FY08 complete, I want to discuss my priorities for the year ahead and share my thoughts about the key strategic topics that are on everybody's mind, including Windows, competition with Apple and Google, our software plus services strategy, and Yahoo.

I also have news about an organizational change and … Read more

Updated at 6:45 a.m. July 24: Juniper Networks confirms it has hired Kevin Johnson as its new CEO.

REDMOND, Wash.--Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's online and Windows chief and a key figure in the company's failed Yahoo takeover effort, is leaving the company to become chief executive officer at Juniper Networks, Microsoft confirmed Wednesday.

No immediate successor has been named for Johnson, who as president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division had reported directly to CEO Steve Ballmer.

In conjunction with Johnson's departure, Microsoft plans to split its Windows and Online Services division into two … Read more