Bang! Big move by Juniper. Juniper Networks is making a big move in the networking market and its’ mobile war with Cisco.

Today, Juniper is announcing the formation of a software division business group, headed by executive vice president and general manager, Manoj Leelanivas to focus on service provider innovation. Also, they are moving key executives around to optimize on their battle plan against Cisco.

Since last fall, SiliconANGLE has been watching and covering the Cisco Juniper war.  It’s been entertaining for sure, and it’s exciting to see companies not back down to Cisco.  Others we covered include HP, Juniper, Metaswitch, handful of startups ..etc.

I’ve been saying for some time here that there are opportunities for companies that innovate and deliver on what the market wants – open scalable and high performance networks.   This is the case with this Juniper news which comes on the days before Mobile World Congress. I’ll be in Barelona for MWC so it should be fun to see how all this plays out on the main stage there.

Here is the news that just hit from Juniper (I’ve edited some of it out – here is the link for full release):

Juniper Networks® (NYSE: JNPR) today announced a new business group and a series of executive assignments that will enable the company to help service providers better respond to the technological and economic challenges they face today. The moves are aligned with the vision of the new network that transforms the economics and enables new experiences for customers globally.

“Late last year, Juniper unveiled a new strategic vision and introduced a series of groundbreaking silicon, software, systems and partnerships to meet the ‘New Network’ demands of the next decade,” said Kevin Johnson, Juniper’s chief executive officer. “This New Network is based on smart systems, open software platforms and an approach that adapts to changing business dynamics by embracing partnerships and unleashing innovation.

Junos Ready Software – A New Business Group Focused on Fueling Innovation

Leading today’s announcements is the formation of a new business group called Junos Ready Software (JRS.) JRS will be dedicated to creating and delivering an ecosystem of software and applications built on the Junos® platform to solve the most pressing challenges facing customers today. These challenges include the development and deployment of advanced mobility and video solutions, automation of network tasks that reduces operating expenses, as well as the delivery of additional value-added services.

Junos is a high-performance network operating system that includes an SDK for the development of intelligent, on-board applications. The Junos platform integrates routing, switching, security, and network services to reduce complexity and simplify new deployments. Junos Ready Software Software group will deliver Juniper and partner-built applications, all running on the Junos Platform. It will include the following specific operating components:

Project Falcon – Disclosed in October 2009, this program is focused on delivering best-of-breed mobile solutions on Junos.

Junos Space – A network application platform for the development and deployment of simple, smart network applications

Junos Innovation Ecosystem – A partner program aimed specifically at enabling a broad range of new third-party applications running on Junos. Examples of these applications include mobile video delivery, addressable advertising, service monitoring, service delivery and security

JRS will be headed by executive vice president and general manager, Manoj Leelanivas, an 11-year veteran and proven technology leader at Juniper, who will now report directly to Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson. Leelanivas most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the Edge and Aggregation business unit, where he led the development and launch of Juniper’s groundbreaking MX-3D Universal Edge Router.

“The initial tasks of JRS will be delivering on the Project Falcon roadmap, enabling mobile content delivery, advertising insertion, service monitoring and delivery – all optimized to run on the Junos software platform.”

Juniper also made two additional management changes to further strengthen the company’s relationships with and contributions to service providers.

Kim Perdikou, a ten-year Juniper veteran, who most recently served as executive vice president and general manager of Juniper’s Infrastructure Products Group (IPG), will move to a newly created position working directly with CEO Kevin Johnson to focus on developing and deepening Juniper relationships with service provider customers and partners.

Stefan Dyckerhoff has been named executive vice president, assuming leadership responsibilities for IPG, reporting directly to Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson. An original member of Juniper’s engineering team during the company’s first seven years, Dyckerhoff recently rejoined the company from Cisco Systems.

“In order to truly help service providers succeed in the next decade, their vendors need to have the right mix of superior technology, a robust partner ecosystem and a unique, collaborative approach to solving business problems. This is why I chose to rejoin Juniper Networks and why I couldn’t be more excited for our future,” said Dyckerhoff.

What All This Means?

Walking The Talk
Back in October Juniper announced four major points on their new focus of this New Network:

1. Junos software as a “New Network” Operating System.
This is the Junos network operating system, the new Junos Space network application platform and new Junos Pulse integrated network client.

2. Junos silicon and system software for faster performance
It’s the new Junos One family of processors, including the Junos Trio chipset with 3D Scaling technology. Junos Trio will be delivered in new modular line cards and new 3.5-inch routers for Juniper MX Series.

3. Cloud Ready – it’s mainly Junos extended in the cloud – security and provisioning – It’s very datacenter focused which is not surprising. I’m digging into this further.

4. Open partnering ecosystem around Junos – kicked off with Dell and IBM and series of other companies and startups.

Juniper Management is delivering on its’ promise and it’s clear that they understands what’s going on in the market.  They are “walking the talk”.  Juniper is delivering on that New Network vision by simply walking the talk.

By creating a separate group focused on software, they are making the market.  An ecosystem of developers and partners move faster on the innovation front and that is what the market needs.  We’ve seen this before in other convergence paradigms in the past.  It is a big deal.

Software is the key to all networking and storage as networking equipment “speeds and feeds” have matured.  I like what Kevin Johnson is doing.  Kevin came from Microsoft so he knows the value of software.

New Network Is Not Just Juniper – It’s Open To Everyone

This New Network vision really is relevant, and Juniper is in good company. Look at all the “New Network Companies” out there- Google, Juniper, HP, Microsoft, IBM, startups like Zetta.net, and many more using software to scale with the growth of the Internet.  The carriers are all upgrading to “New Networks”.  New networks are not just the lowest cost per port but the ability to deliver applications and services fast.  This is the most interesting Angle.

Outside of Juniper’s vision, Google is a great example of this new model of New Network, and Google is executing it brilliantly with Android, Chrome, and their enterprise products.  Juniper now like Google is making the market. Their strategies use software to compete on value *and* open it up to an ecosystem.

As Google’s cofounder Sergey Brin was saying yesterday at the Google Buzz announcement – “It’s the let thousand flowers bloom strategy that makes things work best for product innovation and user experience”. Even Microsoft and IBM are moving to being open and focusing on partnerships.

Conversely, Cisco is the “Old Network” – proprietary and closed.

Software Is Key For Innovation – Open Software and Open Ecosystems

Networking gear has evolved so damn fast that everything is in essence “carrier grade”, and the real action is at the high end.  At the high end we are seeing more improvement which Juniper announced big time improvements last week.  The great news is that companies can take advantage of those advances with the open software.  Customers, developers, and startups are all innovating on software. Software is the key. Google knows this and so does the entire open source movement.

At the end of the day this war will be won or lost on the ecosystem play.  Ecosystems of successful developers and partners have proven in the past and today that they can win the battle. Juniper is really showing that they understand this. They have product leadership on the “gear” or “box” side and now they are showing some “teeth” with a dedicated Junos software business group.  Opening it up is the key for Juniper – this s a “judo move” for them against Cisco.

As I’ve said in previous posts here, here, and here on SiliconAngle, Juniper is smart they are using software to innovate on their product leadership. It’s not the box anymore, but the brains in them – software.

Fundamental Strategy Move – Open verses Closed

Cisco and Juniper have major differences in business strategies.  Cisco is closed and proprietary and Juniper is open and innovative.  This focus on software that is open for developer and partners is a game change.  Game changing move make the market while proprietary ones “milk” the market.

Juniper – The Google of Networking

Juniper Networks is becoming the Google of networking with this move. The market is innovating fast.  Software accelerates that innovation value to developers and customers.

Last October, Juniper had a complete company wide rebranding and renewed vigor mainly a firm and aggressive move to target Cisco. Analysts were skeptical of Juniper when they relaunched. Now they are “walking the talk”.

Juniper looks smart, strong, nimble, and bold with their moves while Cisco looks awkward, clumsy, unfocused, and arrogant.

I see this move by Juniper as game changing and market making.  In this batter between the network titans software and performance will win the day.

Juniper might just be the Google of Networking.  Software, innovation, value to developers, and new products all change the market landscape – a great competitive advantage for anyone.