Juniper Networks' decision to increase its stake in virtualizationsecurity specialist Altor Networks to 100 percent was a fairly obviousmove, says analyst Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group. "Juniper has beentrying to strengthen their enterprise portfolio, trying to become amore relevant vendor. This seems to fit in where Juniper is alreadystrong and gives them a stronger presence," Kerravala says.
The networking company was part of a group investing$10 million in Altor Networks last March, and Juniper is nowshelling out approximately $95 million for the rest of the shares.Building on the existing technology partnership, the acquisition willextend Juniper's security offerings for both the enterprise andservice provider virtualization markets.
The company says securityplays a critical role in the new network and it wanted to extend itssecurity footprint. The "old network" is broken and it doesn't scale,particularly in the data center, according to Juniper.
Juniper is already a leader in datacenter security, especially high-end firewalls starting in the $30,000range, where it holds a 48 percent share.For some time, customers have been asking about Juniper'svirtualization strategy, which led to the investment in, andpartnership with, Altor.
Ultimately, the company decided this was anarea it wanted to own in order to bridge the gap between the physical andvirtual security worlds. The next six to nine months will seeAltor integration with Juniper's management software, Space platform,firewalls and event logs.
