Analyst Reports: Juniper a Leader in Enterprise Networking

There are countless ways to analyze a market so it’s no surprise that different analysts will come to different conclusions when evaluating companies. In this year’s enterprise data center analysis, it’s different. We feel the major analyst firms have reached the same conclusion: Juniper Networks is a leader in the enterprise networking space.

The Results
Earlier this year, Forrester Research listed Juniper as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018.

And we believe that finding has also been reached by being named a Leader in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking 2018, where they write:




 
We believe Gartner has comprehensive criteria when evaluating companies for the Magic Quadrant. Some of the criteria involves a vendor’s competitive offering, compelling vision to move the industry forward and traction in the marketplace. Juniper is confident in the execution and strategy that we believe is being recognized by various analysts.

Execution
We have grown our enterprise business to north of approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenue. Built by the best engineering team in the industry and backed by a world-class support and services organization, we have the breadth and depth of portfolio to solve enterprise needs from data center to branch, from hardware to software, from routing and switching to security and from transport to orchestration.
  
Vision
A company’s strategy reflects its take on how the market will evolve. Our strategy is centered on the transformation the cloud is driving across all corners of the market. Our focus is on engineering simplicity for our customers and partners and helping them in their transition to the cloud.

Our Difference
Whether it’s building private clouds or leveraging public clouds, the race to the cloud is on. Increasingly, enterprises are choosing multicloud. Juniper’s multicloud-ready hardware powered by Junos combined with our multicloud management solution underpinned by Contrail Enterprise Multicloud, we are well-positioned to help enterprises navigate this migration.

Multicloud also means multi-vendor, so we have built our portfolio on the principles of being open. We believe multicloud is about managing resources as a single, cohesive infrastructure with consistent policies and operations regardless of what vendors you use. Customers choose us to stitch together all the disparate parts of their network, where each component is not only insertable and manageable, but also replaceable.

Whether it’s leading the standards push for open protocols, developing richly programmable interfaces to our software or supporting the open source community through efforts like Tungsten Fabric (previously OpenContrail), Juniper is tackling the future in a way that avoids unnecessary lock-in.

We are also different in our view that the future is not just an incremental turn of the crank. Where some companies’ portfolios are mostly derivative work built as a follow-on to their legacy efforts, we have built a portfolio that leverages technology and innovation to leapfrog the status quo. Yes, it is good to reduce cost, but the architectures that harness multicloud will be more than cost-cutting deployments. This is about operational transformation, and that requires a different way of thinking.

More than Just Products
Cloud and multicloud are, at their core, an evolution of operations. Gone are the days when individual enterprise silos can be architected, deployed and managed separately. The power of multicloud is about bringing the full enterprise network together as a cohesive entity.

And such change requires more than just products. Enterprises might start with technology, but their successful path to the cloud will be dependent on navigating the tooling and process implications of multicloud. Only those companies with global reach within their support and services organizations will be well-equipped to act as stewards along the journey.

Ultimately, incumbents in any industry make their living on selling ‘here’. Competitors try to carve out their place in the market by selling ‘there’. At Juniper, we think of things differently. We provide value by helping our customers get from ‘here’ to ‘there’.

For more information, please visit: www.juniper.net/dc-leader

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking, Andrew Lerner, Joe Skorupa, July 2018.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Juniper Networks..
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Brand and Technology – How the Digital Experience Affects Brand Loyalty

Marketing departments have long been key technology drivers – until recently with the consent of the IT department. The tech team have been more than happy to support laptops with PowerPoint installed, specialist marketing software and customer databases for instance.
In recent years marketers have had a tempting choice of tools, such as marketing automation, SEO and CRM, to help them gain a competitive advantage.
The challenge to IT departments has been to assess, implement and integrate these tools in a timely way. As the recent Logicalis CIO Survey shows, the majority of CIOs say between 60-80% of their time is spent on day-to-day tasks. Little wonder then that, in the face of increased security threats and ‘keeping the lights on’, this has not been a top priority for their resources.
The result has been a rise in Shadow IT; the introduction of SaaS services, mobile devices, apps and other third party offerings into the corporate environment with little, if any, IT department involvement. So much so that, as the Logicalis CIO Survey has consistently shown, Shadow IT is increasingly accepted, even embraced.
But is this disconnect between marketing and IT something we should be concerned about?

Marketing and IT – Time to Hold Hands?

The short answer is ‘yes’.  That is, as the march to digital transformation continues, businesses should be asking themselves just how well marketing and IT are working together to ensure customers’ experience of the brand is positive.
The precise role of this marketing and IT marriage depends on the nature of the business – but in all cases, it is ever more important.
For disruptive digital businesses, like Uber, Airbnb and Amazon, technology is the brand, so it’s importance is glaringly obvious.
For longer established businesses, the picture is less clear-cut, but just as important.  In these cases, the bare minimum is that day-to-day customer facing technology does not negatively affect the brand. Unfortunately there are all too many examples of companies getting this wrong.

Bad Wi-Fi and your Brand

While travelling in Australia last year, I was struck by the number of hotels that made a charge for Wi-Fi and internet access.
I commented on this to a colleague in Melbourne and he agreed. He told me that the best-kept secret in Melbourne was a coffee chain that offered exceptional free Wi-Fi.
That certainly resonated with me.  I don’t know how many times I have chosen meetings venues based on the quality of the Wi-Fi  – even if the coffee isn’t great.
Similarly, one of the train operators in the UK offers free Wi-Fi for passengers. If you are on a standard class it is, as one Twitter user said, “like surfing through the eye of a needle.” Not great.  If you are on First Class, you get a much better service.
The approach entrenches the existing negative feelings passengers have about the brand.

Bad Retail Tech

National newspapers have recently reported the chaos caused when a bank updated its online services. At the time of writing it is producing a maelstrom of negative brand chatter – and they are not alone.
Cash machines that don’t work and faulty card readers in shops and restaurants all produce a sinking feeling in customers, borne from the disappointment that they cannot give a business their custom.

Bad Tech and Customer Service

So many calls to customer service lines are still plagued by, slow, faulty and siloed computer systems – and these are all issues that make it harder for staff to delight their customers.
Why do you have to transfer me to someone else because “that’s on a different system”? Why do I get lost in the phone system and why, when I do get through, does my information not follow me, so I have to repeat the problem all over again? That question has already been answered – it’s on a different system.
It’s tough enough for call centre staff without throwing a tech spanner in the works.

Data Protection and Your Brand

In a 2017 survey a massive 70% of consumers stated they would stop doing business with an organisation if it experienced a data breach.
Furthermore, 93% of consumers said they would take or consider taking legal action against a business that has been breached.
The question here is whether the marketing function is working with IT on data security and incident planning? Or is it only a marketing problem once the worst has happened?

One Strategy for the Whole Business

When it comes to technology and the customer experience, it is no good simply asking sales and marketing people to map the customer journey and build communications to fit.
The whole business needs to be involved and two important issues need to be addressed.
First, and strategically, the question should not be “what shall we do with this tech”? (be it AI, machine learning, data analytics or the entire digital transformation) but “what experience do our prospects, leads and customers want, and what tech would best deliver that?”
Second, resources need to be made available to IT departments to comfortably prioritise this: Only 25% of CIOs outsource more than 50% of their IT. Delivering greater revenue and better customer experiences doesn’t need to mean massive internal reorganisation.


Joanne Nelson, VP International Marketing, Logicalis, looks at the technology user experience and its influence on brand perception.