Juniper, Avaya Team Up To Tackle Cisco At Network Edge

Juniper Networks this week is launching new security and routing products for branch offices, including models that will have integrated VoIP capabilities from Avaya.

The strategy to put multiple services such as VoIP, security and routing on a single branch-office box competes directly with rival Cisco Systems and its popular Integrated Services Routers. Cisco said earlier this year that it shipped more than 1 million ISRs within the first 18 months of the product line's launch.

As the foundation for its new integrated offerings, Juniper's J-series access router line is being refreshed with a new hardware platform. The new J4350 and J6350 routers are based on the same hardware as Juniper's Secure Services Gateway 500-series products, a lineup of security devices with integrated routing capabilities. The new routers are four to 10 times faster than their predecessors, said Hitesh Sheth, vice president of security products at Juniper, Sunnyvale, Calif.

Early next year, Juniper plans to release an Avaya Voice Gateway module that will integrate Avaya's IG550 telephony gateway with the new J-series routers, enabling solution providers to provide branch office routing and IP telephony in one box, Sheth said.

"The entire Avaya channel will be enabled to sell the bundled offering and the Juniper partner base, too, once they have Avaya certifications," Sheth said. The integrated product represents the first offering from the joint development alliance that Avaya and Juniper unveiled last year, Sheth said.Solution providers said the Juniper/Avaya bundle will appeal to the increasing number of customers that want to simplify the network edge.

"If customers truly are looking for a one-box solution, we have it. It fills a void," said Joseph Fuccillo, CTO of Juma Technologies, a solution provider in Farmingdale, N.Y., that works with both vendors. Juma was one of the solution providers that helped conceptualize the joint offering, Fuccillo said.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Juniper also plans to launch a WAN optimization module for the new routers based on its own WXC product line.

Pricing for the J4350 starts at $4,000, and the J6350 starts at $10,500. Both include firewall and VPN capabilities and are scheduled to ship this quarter.