Juniper Networks and IBM Expand Relationship with OEM Agreement to Advance the Economics of Networking
Adds High-Performance Networking Solutions to IBM’s Data Center Portfolio
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced that Juniper and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) are continuing to broaden their strategic relationship by entering into an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) agreement that will enable IBM to provide Juniper’s Ethernet networking products and support within IBM’s data center portfolio of products.
The addition of Juniper’s products to IBM’s data center networking portfolio provides customers with a best-in-class networking solution and accelerates both companies’ shared vision of advancing the economics of networking and the data center by reducing costs, improving services and managing risk.
“With Juniper’s Ethernet technologies added to our data center portfolio, IBM is able to offer customers more choice and flexibility in their networking solutions to address the growing demands being placed on their IT environments,” said Jim Comfort, IBM VP of Enterprise Initiatives. “This new OEM agreement with Juniper will help support IBM’s data center networking initiatives through unparalleled network scalability, carrier-class reliability and operational simplicity, accelerating the deployment of our customers’ virtualized applications and services, and extending the value of their networks.”
Today’s data centers require higher performance and less complex networks as an essential element of their evolution. While there are extreme cost pressures on IT budgets, the demand on data centers only increases with exploding data volumes, demand for new services, speed and security, and always-on reliability. In addition, cloud computing will further drive the need for massive scale, efficiency and elasticity from networks and data center architectures. The broadened IBM and Juniper relationship is further evidence of the growing importance of the high-performance network in the progression of data centers toward cloud computing or cloud-like infrastructures. Both companies agree that a high-performance network is vital to the backbone for both the data center (enabling service production) and the global network (enabling service delivery).
“This OEM agreement represents a continued deepening of our relationship with IBM, and a significant new route to market for Juniper,” said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager, Ethernet Platforms Business Group, Juniper Networks. “Our focus on delivering fast, reliable, secure, simplified networks fits perfectly into IBM’s dynamic infrastructure initiative to help customers accelerate growth and innovation, while creating operational efficiencies and overall savings.”
“Today’s enterprise must balance IT budgets and growing network complexity with increasing end-user demands and market competition,” said Mark Fabbi, vice president – distinguished analyst, Gartner. “Increasing enterprise options for integrated data center solutions will allow enterprises to more easily achieve more efficient and agile data center networking architectures. The industry will clearly benefit from the innovative, open solutions coming from a range of viable sources.”
The OEM agreement allows IBM System & Technology Group (STG) to brand, label and sell select Juniper EX Series Ethernet switches and MX Series Ethernet Services routers.
