* Juniper establishes a government marketing unit
Juniper Networks has opened a government marketing arm in Herndon, Va., to pursue several key IP networking initiatives underway within the U.S. federal government.
Juniper has been selling IP routers to federal agencies for three years. In partnership with MCI, Juniper provides the core routers on the Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN), a nationwide network that links the military’s high performance computing centers. Juniper also supports IP networks run by the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Now Juniper is stepping up its efforts to sell its gear to federal customers including the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. Juniper bid against archrival Cisco on the military’s Global Information Grid – Bandwidth Expansion contract. Worth more than $350 million, the GIG-BE contract is due for award at the end of December.
Juniper also is eyeing efforts at the new Department of Homeland Security to collapse 22 separate networks into two or three networks, as well as communications programs at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Coast Guard.
“If you look at the federal market, there is an interesting collision of things happening at the same time,” says Dubhe Beinhorn, vice president of Juniper Federal Systems. “What is required by government is to streamline networks and increase bandwidth. But they’re also looking for options in routing. Up until now, there has only been one option in routing.”
Marty Schulman, chief technologist for Juniper Federal Systems, says federal network managers are interested in Juniper’s products because of their filtering capabilities, high availability and support for IPv6, the next generation of IP. But what’s more important to federal network managers is the idea of equipment diversity on their network backbones.
“Until recently, a single vendor has dominated federal networks,” Schulman says. “That [situation] may be less conducive to security than having diversity at the core.”
Juniper’s new Federal Systems Group employs 30 people. Juniper will partner with ISPs, systems integrators and government resellers to bid on specific federal IP network upgrades.
