Why a Cisco Lover Bought Juniper

This week, I met with the CTO of a well-known, global beverage company. This guy loves Cisco; he has Cisco all over his global IT infrastructure. And he isn’t really sold on Juniper Junos.

So, why did he buy Juniper switches?

To keep Cisco on their toes. As Gartner’s research shows, businesses should deploy networking equipment from multiple vendors. The research clearly shows that businesses can significantly reduce costs and simplify operations by using networking equipment from at least two vendors.

XO Communications uses Cisco extensively in our network. We have had a strong partnership with Cisco for more than a decade. But we also buy equipment from Juniper, Nokia Siemens, Infinera, and others.

XO chose Nokia Siemens gear for the first nationwide 100G network ever. A few weeks later, XO followed it up with an announcement that they would use Ciena gear for 100G Ethernet in their metro networks.

If you have an all-Cisco network, that’s a smart move. But you’ll save and simplify if you also have some equipment from other networking suppliers.

4 Notes/ Hide

  1. photochepooka reblogged this from networknate
  2. networknate posted this