Cox goes all-Juniper, all-the-time

Defying conventional wisdom, Cox Communications is putting all of its router eggs in the Juniper Networks basket.

The company announced last week it will deploy Juniper T-series routers in upgrading its backbone network to address capacity issues. The company has already deployed Juniper M-series routers at the network edge, and is using Juniper gear in its data centers as well, making Cox’s network an all-Juniper affair.

Randy Kinsey, manager of network engineering and architecture of Cox, admitted dependence on a single vendor is a concern, but not the overriding issue.

“Normally, we would like to have two vendors, to leverage one against the other,” he said. “But we have to weigh that against all the other considerations. We are comfortable enough with Juniper to make that decision.”

The advantages of a single-vendor network are considerable, Kinsey said.

“We have a consistent approach--the routers share a lot of common parts. Sparing is reduced--they use the same kind of interfaces and run the same kind of software,” he said. “That means there is less we have to test when they release new feature or protocol enhancement, and we don’t have to wait for multiple vendors to do separate testing of their products and then interoperability testing between products. Once they launch it, it’s launched.”

Demand for IP capacity is still doubling annually, and will continue for the foreseeable future, Kinsey said. With this backbone network upgrade, however, Cox believes it is set “for quite a ways down the road.”

Kinsey and Cox declined to say who Juniper displaced, but Cisco Systems had previously provided routers to Cox.