Juniper (Quote) announced the general availability of its TX
Matrix platform today, as it looks for an edge in its ongoing battle with
Cisco (Quote).
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company's offering allows service providers to link
several Juniper T640 routers so they function like one unit delivering
throughput of more than 3 billion packets per second.
Susan Ursch, a Juniper
spokeswoman, said the starting price for the base TX Matrix chassis is
$175,000.
By combining the T-series routers, JUNOS software and TX Matrix platform,
Juniper said customers can more quickly move to a single Internet Protocol
(define) network.
T640s, which have been on the market for two years, and TX Matrix both use
Juniper's JUNOS routing system software, a design decision aimed at making
integrations and upgrades easier.
Juniper said the TX Matrix platform is already being used by about 75
customers, including T-Com, the fixed-line division of Deutsche Telekom, and
KT Corp.
The company is coming off a strong third quarter for its core router
products, with revenues jumping 26 percent, according to Infonetics
Research. Juniper also saw its worldwide core router market share jump from 6
percent to 36 percent.
Cisco meanwhile saw its core router revenue increase 5 percent last quarter.
However, its market share slipped 2 percent to 58 percent, Infonetics Research
concluded.
An analyst with the research firm was not immediately available to comment
on how today's news from Juniper might affect market share going forward.
Juniper's TX Matrix takes aim at Cisco's Carrier Routing System (CRS-1).
Introduced with much fanfare this year, the San Jose,
Calif.-based company's router is designed to help providers deliver
next-generation data, voice and video services over a converged IP network
to business and residential customers.
In a research note to investors today, analysts at SG Cowen & Co. said
that Cisco's router revenue "has been volatile over the past several
quarters as Juniper has steadily gained share." Some of the market share
losses may be due to product transitions, SG Cowen said.
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