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Independen
Just two months into 2009, and there is no question business and IT priorities are focused on ways to reduce costs, accelerate service delivery and maximize revenue. As I talk to customers, colleagues and other business leaders, it's clear that operational efficiency will be the watchword for some time to come. However other concepts including agility, responsiveness and customer service will remain important themes for business executives as we all navigate the choppy waters head.
We've been saying for a long time that deploying Juniper technology, products and software in a network environment can be a more efficient and cost effective way to run a network. It's just common sense that using one version of the network OS is more efficient, as opposed to the potentially hundreds of versions of competitive operating systems run by some companies.
At the heart of the argument is JUNOS, the operating system that runs across every piece of Juniper hardware. We believe this makes our JUNOS product the epitome of operational efficiency, unlike our worthy competitor, which often requires dozens (sometimes hundreds) of different OS versions to exist on single network.
Well it turns out we were right. In fact, in a recent commissioned study,conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Juniper Networks, Inc., the consulting group concluded that running "Multi-Version Network OSes Are The Silent Killers Of Network Efficiency." The study goes on to say:
Maintaining multiple network operating systems directly impacts operational complexity.** . . .Sixty-two percent of respondents agreed that multiple OSes impact efficiency.
This is consistent with our daily conversations with clients where all aspects of network management - from configuration to maintenance to optimization - are difficult to coordinate across multiple network OSes. Interestingly, Forrester goes on to tell us that while more than half of respondents claim they have a single network OS, 52% admit they have multiple versions of that OS. Forrester defines single OS as "A true "single network OS" refers to an OS with a single source code base developed along a single release train."
This aligns directly with JUNOS as a single operating system and differentiates us from competitors whose users tell us they may be running from single digit up to hundreds of versions of the same operating system within their networks.
Additionally, Forrester had three recommendations for business leaders with regard to building a stable and agile high performance network:
1. Build your business case on more than just capex
"Selecting a vendor that improves your operational efficiency guarantees you'll go after the additional tasks like monitoring, maintenance, provisioning, and troubleshooting"
2. Standardize your network environment all the way down to the OS level
"The key, however, is to make sure you don't just select a single vendor. You need to go deeper and make sure you are implementing a single OS image that scales across your entire network infrastructure"**
3. Go beyond just the network
"What else can you consolidate with the right network foundation? For example, leading organizations we've interviewed are collapsing datacenter tiers; pushing virtualization further into servers, storage, and desktops"**
Finally, Forrester found that the efficiencies of running JUNOS can represent cost savings associated with routine network management tasks*, including:
- 41% reduction in overall network operations cost based on the dollar savings across all the task categories.
- 54% reduction in maintenance and support costs for "planned events."
- 41% increase in network stability/reliability based on the reduced effort required for planned and unplanned events.
- 40% decrease in time to resolution based on the reduction in time needed to resolve unplanned network events.
- 25% reduction in cost to deploy based on tasks associated with "adding infrastructure."
Here at Juniper, we believe that our "single network operating system", with a single source code base developed along a single release train, is a critical and non-trivial differentiator when attempting to operate a high-performance network at scale.
*"A Single Network OS: Maximizing Operational Efficiency And Flexibility" A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Juniper Networks, February, 2009.
**"The Total Economic ImpactTM Of Juniper Networks' JUNOS Network Operating System", A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Juniper Networks, February, 2009.
