It seems that not everyone is satisfied with the dominance of VMware and Cisco.  According to the Network World article “Juniper Plotting Open Source Alternative to Cisco, VMware SDN Controllers” Juniper and others are focusing on finding an Open Source-based controller for software-defined networks (SDN).  Juniper’s ultimate goal is to find a controller that is embraced by the industry like the popular Linux, Apache and Hadoop. Bob Muglia, Executive Vice President of Juniper’s Software Solutions Division made the following statement during an interview with Network World.

We think the likely thing and the best thing for the industry is to have an open source controller emerge that becomes a third standard controller.  One that is available broadly across companies and supports the broad set of capabilities that are needed. That has yet to emerge. And we are looking closely and working with a number of players in the industry to determine how it is likely to emerge.

Currently VMware and Cisco are making some notable moves that will give them significant market position in SDNs. Juniper’s SDN strategy centers around adding OpenFlow support to specific products. Juniper currently holds about 3% of the Ethernet market and falls at No.3 behind Cisco and HP.

The data center and campus networks are where Juniper sees the immediate short-term benefits of SDNs because the infrastructure is geographically concentrated. Programming a network is harder when the elements are geographically dispersed.

However, its interesting to note that Juniper has acknowledged that until they find the right match they will continue to support market dominant VMware. Industry favorites such as Apache have already proven their dominance and success as demonstrated by leading companies such as LucidWorks.  Juniper definitely has their work cut out for them.

April Holmes, October 2, 2012

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.