Juniper Networks' top executive isn't losing sleep over his chief rival Cisco Systems.
Instead, Scott Kriens, who has been CEO of Juniper since the company's infancy in 1996, says he's focused exclusively on helping his customers build the next-generation IP network.
Early on, Juniper was labelled a "Cisco killer", and since then the rivalry has become a classic in Silicon Valley, where Juniper is known for its "best-of-breed" products and Cisco is known as the one-stop networking-equipment provider.
So far, Juniper has lived up to its moniker. Since it first started shipping product in 1998, it has eaten away at Cisco's exclusive hold on the core router market. In the past year, it has captured nearly 30 percent of the market, a 16 percent increase from a year ago.
Now Juniper is going after Cisco in the enterprise market. In February, Juniper spent nearly $4bn to buy enterprise security leader NetScreen Technologies. It also introduced a new family of enterprise access routers. And it has hired former Cisco executive Tushar Kothari to run its new channel program.
Juniper's success against Cisco must taste especially sweet to Kriens. Before Juniper, he was co-founder and vice-president of sales for Stratacom, which was bought in 1996 by Cisco for roughly $4.5bn.
ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com recently visited Kriens at Juniper's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, where he talked about his company's famed rivalry with Cisco, why security is important to networking, and what to expect from Juniper on the acquisition front.
