Cisco Juniper Smackdown

Juniper Networks held its position as the world’s number-two supplier of service provider routers in the third quarter, though its revenues in the space continue to shrink from a year earlier, to the benefit of its competitors.

According to research firm Dell’Oro, Juniper’s service provider router revenue was down 5% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, third-place Alcatel’s revenue was up 169%, and fourth-place Redback Networks was up 105%. But the big star in the third quarter, Dell’Oro said, is market leader Cisco Systems, which took more than 55% of the $1.5-billion market. Its revenue in the space was up 33% from a year earlier.

CEO John Chambers was bragging about it during the company’s third-quarter earnings call this month, vowing to become a much more intimate and important partner to network operators over time. Cisco attributed much of the company’s success with service providers in the quarter to the popularity of its CRS-1 router, which will be deployed by Sprint this quarter (including the new smaller version now generally available).

Juniper’s hoping new muscle in its service provider gear takes the wind out of those sales. In September, the vendor unveiled a bigger version of its broadband services router. Last month, its largest edge router yet became generally available. And in next year’s first quarter, Juniper’s most Ethernet-centric product yet, the MX960, becomes generally available, finally answering calls from analysts and carriers alike for more Ethernet. It will be interesting to see what effect if any the new boxes have on Juniper’s numbers.

E-mail me at egubbins@prismb2b.com.