Juniper Networks is announcing the acquisition of Ankeena Networks, a leading provider of new media infrastructure solutions. Ankeena offers solutions that deliver online media content at massive scale, while providing a television-like viewing experience for media with dramatically reduced delivery costs. The price of the acquisition is said to be less than $100 million.

In a move as part of a direct response to Cisco Juniper is adding network intelligence to the network to power the tsunami of rich media such as video. This acquisition by Juniper aligns with their vision for a New Network and most recently their announced venture fund where Juniper will invest $50 million in startups. Ankenna was an investment by Juniper.

Ankenna was invested in by top tier venture firms such as Clearstone, Trinity, and Ankeena’s Media Flow Director ensures users receive a smooth-viewing experience despite varying network conditions and regardless of the viewing device.

Ankeena’s comprehensive support for different adaptive streaming technologies allows viewers to enjoy watching videos without any buffering or stuttering by dynamically detecting the available bandwidth and varying the delivery bit-rate.  While providing a high-quality video output, it also provides up to a 10-to-1 reduction in the number of servers needed to deliver the same amount of media, thereby significantly reducing the costs of delivering media.

In alignment with Juniper’s vision for the “New Network,” Juniper will integrate Ankeena’s technology into its product portfolio to address the rising demand for rich media content while significantly improving the economics of content delivery for service providers. Those that follow Juniper closely should recognize the Ankeena name. They are a key contributor to Juniper’s “Project Falcon” initiative, which was their answer to counter Cisco’s video play with Starent.

Juniper’s play is to help mobile operators reduce transit traffic and costs while providing a TV-like viewing experience for rich media content.  Ankeena offers solutions that deliver television-like viewing experiences of online content at massive scale.

Akeena has 60 employees and the company will become part of the Junos Ready Software group. Ankeena’s CEO, Rajan Raghavan, will report to Kevin Johnson as Vice President and General Manager of the newly created Content and Media Business Unit (CMBU). Prabakar Sundarrajan, Ankeena’s CTO, who will become Chief Strategy Officer of CMBU.

Through the combination of Ankeena’s software with Juniper’s Media Flow solution to enable uninterrupted video viewing and content delivery of up to 10 Gigabits per second. As an addition to the Junos Ready Software Business Group, Juniper will leverage the Ankeena software to offer high performance content delivery networks as well as “3 Screen” media delivery solutions for the next-generation service provider network.

My Angle: Look Beyond the iPad

Recently, I was reading a blog post by Doc Searles talking about the iPad and the limitations that it has and the limitations that smartphones and these new devices (tablets) will put on the network.  Doc writes about the strain on the network.  Doc has other great views on the disruption of the iPad but for this post the point about the stain on the network is very relevant.

“We’re going to see a huge strain on the mobile data system as iPads and other tablets flood the world. Here too it will matter whether the mobile phone companies want to be a rising tide that lifts all boats, or just conduits for their broadcasting and content production partners. (Or worse, old fashioned phone companies, treating and billing data in the same awful ways they bill voice.) There’s more money in the former than the latter, but the latter are their easy pickings. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.”

In today’s changing market there are new demands on service providers to provide video and media to iPhones, android phones, and now tablets like iPad and HP Slate. Juniper has an opportunity to deliver a solution that helps service providers prioritize and deliver media solutions.

Video demand and usage is exploding. Online video viewership has increased significantly over the past year, with Nielsen reporting 138 million unique viewers in the U.S. alone, which represents a 16 percent increase from the same period the previous year. The growth in total streams is even greater, increasing 26 percent year-over-year to a total of 11.2 billion streams.

Why Did Juniper Buy Ankeena?

I’ve written about Juniper’s approach to the market verses Cisco that is Juniper being open and Cisco being closed. This deal underscores Juniper’s approach to networking which embraces an open, highly secure and scalable solution that transform the economics of service providers especially around network issues like video and mobile.

Juniper will further integrate Ankeena technology into it’s product portfolio to address market demand for advanced content delivery networks (CDNs) and for rich 3-screen media delivery (mobile devices, PCs, STBs). There is a trend today where service providers either have to build their own CDNs or integrate into existing CDNs. According to CIMI research, 22 of the top 23 service providers are planning or building content delivery services. In addition, most managed video delivery companies (cable, satellite, IPTV) are developing 3 screen solutions.

This represents Juniper’s customer base, and the Ankeena technology makes Juniper a leading provider and competitor in this fast-growing market. Service provider customers can now efficiently store, distribute and deliver rich media at scale. Ankeena technology with Junos Ready software enables high performance CDN for all content as well as a 3 screen media delivery solution for these service providers servicing new devices like the iPhone and iPad. In addition, the Ankeena technology has been fully tested and integrated with the Juniper product portfolio.

Here is the blog post from Juniper on the deal.

Those that follow Juniper closely should recognize the Ankeena name.  They are a key contributor to our “Project Falcon” initiative.  In October 2009, we announced a partnership to help extend and optimize their networks for online media delivery, providing access to Junos Ready Software to facilitate the close integration of Ankeena technology with Junos. In addition, at Mobile World Congress 2010, we introduced the Juniper Media Flow, leveraging Ankeena’s Media Flow 2.0, to help mobile operators reduce transit traffic and costs while providing a TV-like viewing experience for rich media content.

The time is now for networking companies to offer solutions that help service providers prioritize and deliver media solutions. Online video viewership has increased significantly over the past year, with Nielsen reporting 138 million unique viewers in the U.S. alone, which represents a 16 percent increase from the same period the previous year.  The growth in total streams is even greater, increasing 26 percent year-over-year to a total of 11.2 billion streams.  In addition, Coda Research Consultancy forecasts that U.S. mobile handset data traffic will reach 327 petabytes a month in 2010. Mobile video will account for the lion share of that traffic

Juniper’s approach to networking embraces offering open, highly secure and scalable solutions that transform the economics of service providers.  The acquisition of Ankeena makes our product portfolio highly competitive in existing and future CDN build outs and 3 Screen solutions.  This will allow us to work closely with our Top 100 Global Service Provider customers to deliver simple, scalable new media solutions without introducing additional complexity to their networks.