Don't count out Juniper -- yet.

It's not a fun time at Juniper Networks. The company is suffering through a perfect storm of an aging product line, SEC investigations, lower revenue estimates, and a revolving door of senior managers. The share price is down and Wall Street smells blood in the water.

Is Juniper the next has-been in the networking market? Not yet. Wall Street is overreacting (what a surprise!). Juniper is well established on the network service provider short list and upcoming product revisions will help ease competitive pressure from Alcatel, Cisco, Huawei, and Redback.

In addition, Juniper has a real opportunity it has yet to capitalize on. Who is the number 2 enterprise networking vendor? Probably HP or Foundry but Juniper certainly should be a player as users look to push back on Cisco with a viable alternative. Who is number 2 in network security? Check Point is an also-ran and ISS is still too hokey to play with the big boys. Juniper/NetScreen can and should be nipping at Cisco's heels.

This opportunity is not new and so far Juniper hasn't really executed. Large companies tell me that Juniper treats them like a service provider and doesn't understand enterprise requirements. Security competitors claim that the Juniper acquisition took the moxie out of NetScreen bravado and they don't see Juniper in nearly as many deals as the pre-acquisition days.

Yes, Juniper needs to update aging products but it also needs to shore up its enterprise play soon before that open door closes. Time for Juniper to buy Enterasys or Extreme and really go after the enterprise market with gusto. Short of doing this, I see a steady but maturing company as opposed to a once high flyer in the Valley and on Wall Street.