Sep 23rd, 2008
The Power of One
Inspired by Mike Bushong, who authored JUNOS for Dummies and also provided excellent sources for plagiarization.
How do you compete with Cisco? Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel are not doing so well. HuaWei chose to be the low-price leader: a strategy based on its inherent strength. Juniper Networks wins with its JUNOS operating systems.
Since almost all Juniper’s gears are based on the same architecture and work the same way, Juniper lowers the costs for customers. They would enjoy “train once, apply many times” efficiency. For Juniper’s internal operations, a single effort benefits all products. This gives Juniper a time-to-market edge: new product group focuses only on the differentiators and leverage from the same core functionalities.
It is easy to copy Cisco’s formula: create autonomous business units, give them free rein on hardware, software, marketing, and business infra-structure, hold the exec accountable, and sit back to enjoy the success. But this approach tries to beat Cisco in the game defined by Cisco. History shows this path littered with corpses of companies who tried. Juniper defined a different game: JUNOS vs. IOS. It does not try to fight against Cisco’s product portfolio, marketing army, R&D dollars, or acquisition spigot. It chose to fight on Cisco’s soft spot: software. In a battle against a giant, compete where size matter less seems like the right idea.
In this game, it is JUNOS against many smaller Ciscoes, each having an OS and a smaller OS development team. This is quite Sun-Tze: divide the larger enemy into smaller sub-units and attack with all strengths focused at a laser-sharp point. There will be no enemy too big and no battle not winnable.
As long as Juniper stays with this strategy.
[...] JUNOS Rescue Configuration(救援配置) 阿婆行得快，一定有古怪。之前发布的JUNOS配置管理文档，主要讨论如何使用JUNOS的CLI对Juniper Networks路由器上的配置文件进行JUNOS管理性操作。这是一种软件行为。而在JUNIPER网络公司的J系列业务路由器平台上，其中一种重要的特性便在于：当出现人为配置失误出现网络故障时，你可以使用J-系列路由器面板上的RESET/CONFIG按钮，从物理上，将Juniper路由器恢复到JUNOS厂商默认配置，或者一个之前由网络管理员创建并保存的，并且根据你的需求，能够确保Juniper路由器能够顺利的重新接入网络，或者提供基本正常数据转发的JUNOS Rescue Configuration(救援/挽救/紧急配置)上。 [...]
Ah, a single OS, central development, singular interface… No doubt you will beat Cisco on the products you choose to compete with… However, what’s the strategy for growth? By doing the same products better and taking market shares away?
A dis-centralized Cisco with big appetite for acquisition, is after new markets with new products quickly. Can you keep up with their growth? A large competitor like Cisco that grows at faster pace, is bad news for Juniper
One Windows has given Microsoft a nice run. One Linux has conquered half of the world. One OS from Juniper can bring out more products more quickly than Cisco, actually at lower price too.
I am not sure Cisco is growing faster than Juniper. Check out their revenue trends.