Juniper upgrade challenges Cisco

Networking vendor Juniper is looking to grab a further slice of Cisco's market share

Networking vendor Juniper is looking to grab a further slice of Cisco’s market share with upgrades to its high-end security portfolio.

The vendor has launched two new hardware modules for its NetScreen-5000 Series Firewall and VPN systems, the 8G2 and 2xGE Secure Port Modules, which it has claimed provide advanced features and increased performance for large enterprise, carrier and data centre networks.

Anton Grashion, security strategist at Juniper, told CRN the new modules double the speed of Juniper’s current offering.

“This is a good opportunity for resellers because they can offer incumbent customers something newer and faster, but for the same price,” he said.

Juniper also launched a Secure Socket Layer VPN solution, the 6000 SP, claiming it is the fastest high-end firewall on the market.

“Resellers can offer this as a managed service without having to go through a carrier. They can take a single box and put it in a rack within their own infrastructure, or they can give the box to customers to manage themselves,” Grashion said.

“We are chipping away at Cisco. We are the most credible alternative, and I’m sure there are plenty of disaffected customers out there looking for a change.”

Simon Goodenough, sales director at partner Quantix, said: “The 6000 SP allow partners to deliver managed services based around secure remote access as well as pure security, allowing us to offer more flexible solutions.”

Cisco declined to comment.