Reflections on the 2011 EMEA Press Summit – musings from Barcelona

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Juniper Networks’ annual EMEA Press Summit has finished for another year, and I’ve had a chance to reflect on some really thought-provoking debates around the future of the network and its fundamental relevance to just about everything people do, in business and at home.

This was my first press summit with Juniper Networks, and it was inspiring to see the energy in discussions around Juniper Networks new network – from the press attendees and my colleagues.

Juniper Networks “Connect everything, empower everyone” vision has never been more pertinent to the EMEA marketplace than today. The network is more relevant than ever before and it is at the forefront of driving innovation within a business, no matter what size or focus.

Nowadays organisations need the right network from the beginning. Cheaper and faster may have been the driving force behind IT prioritisation during the recession, but today businesses need to concentrate on creating better, more intelligent networks to provide services at a lower total cost of ownership. Business leaders should also be thinking about how they future- proof their network to deal with ever changing demands, as-yet-unknown applications, and hard-to-predict scale and capacity.

It’s no longer just CIOs and CTOs that think about the network. CEO to CFO now believe that the network is a fundamental part of their business strategy. Quite simply, if the network isn’t up to the job, there isn’t a technology lifeline in place that employees and customers can rely on. Productivity will diminish markedly, profitability may be at risk and competitive advantage will be lost.

As senior vice president for Juniper Networks in EMEA I will be leading the charge building on the fantastic work already achieved in the last 18 months, taking the new network to our customers.

We had a great EMEA Press Summit, roll on 2012!

Sean Dolan, Senior Vice President EMEA, Juniper Networks