Cisco takes aim at Juniper in new campaign

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper (NYSE: JNPR) may be the two fiercest rivals in the router space, but for much of their history they never spoke out against one another until now.

As Cisco looks to reemerge from a slump due to entering businesses that were outside of its core routing competency, such as the now defunct Flip camera business, the vendor is taking a public swing at its Silicon Valley neighbor.

In its campaign, called "Can You Trust a Vendor who Overpromises and Underdelivers?" Cisco argues that Juniper has failed to meet its promise to deliver key products, including its 100 Gigabit Ethernet and MX Series edge routers, two-and-a-half years after they were first announced. Cisco also said that Juniper's T4000 core router--which was supposed to debut last year--isn't available yet. In addition, Cisco alleges that Juniper has not publicly debuted its Project Falcon platform despite three launches of the solution, and its QFabric data center system is still unavailable.

"Vision doesn't mean much if your track record of execution is murky," Cisco operations executive Robert Lloyd said in a company blog post, referring to Juniper. "No amount of future promises can make up for failures in execution. Over-promising and under-delivering does not result in a strong reputation with customers."

Of course, Juniper was quick to dismiss the allegations.

Stefan Dyckerhoff, who oversees Juniper's platform systems division, said in a Wall Street Journal article that "I can honestly say we have met every date we have ever put out there."

On Monday, Juniper told analysts that the remaining two elements of QFabric will actually be available this week.

David Shane, vice president of global corporate communications, said in a statement today: "We're not going to comment on a competitor's publicity stunt. Customers tell us they want an alternative to the legacy approach, and we're focused on delivering innovation for them. It appears as if Cisco has once again lost focus."

Cisco's diatribe against Juniper, which included its "Juniper Pizza" video is a different turn for the company. Traditionally, Cisco never mentioned Juniper by name when they had been asked by analysts and media about its routing competitors.

For more:
- see Cisco's blog post
- and Cisco's Juniper video

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