What's The Score?

By Andrew Hickey

For the second consecutive year, Juniper Networks Inc. took top honors from solution providers for its network security appliances as part of our 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey. But this year, Juniper is sharing the spotlight with SonicWall Inc., which tied with Juniper for the coveted top spot.

The differences between the two powerhouse vendors, which both clocked an overall score of 75, are subtle. SonicWall took the top spot for product innovation, edging out Juniper when it comes down to product quality and reliability, richness of product features/functionality, technical innovation and compatibility and ease of integration. The pair tied for product marketability, and Juniper took the top spot for services opportunities around its network security appliances.

Juniper made its greatest strides in the partnership category, where it received first-place nods for its partner portal, communication and revenue and profit potential. Both Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendors shared the praise for their overall partner program and SonicWall was top dog for ROI and ease of doing business.

Juniper was also the runaway favorite for support, and did very well with its training and postsales support. Juniper and SonicWall jockeyed for supremacy for presales support. They lost marketing support to Cisco, who came in first in that criterion, and Trend Micro.

Joining Juniper and SonicWall to round out the top five vendors were Fortinet, with 74; Cisco Systems, with 73; Trend Micro, with 72; and Secure Computing, with 71. McAfee was not included in the final results because too few McAfee VARs responded to the survey.

Barry Moore, account executive with Graycon Group Ltd., a Calgary-based solution provider, said Juniper goes above and beyond to make it easy for Graycon to do business.

"They are very clear," he said. "They cut to the chase and they have a no BS approach. That makes our job easier."

Steve Pataky, Juniper's vice president of channel development and programs, said taking the top spot two years running is a sign that Juniper's channel program is realizing its full potential.

"It means we're able to sustain our vision in the channel," he said.

For network security appliances in particular, Pataky said Juniper has continued to refresh its product line to incorporate it into its high performance networking strategy. Refreshes, such as firewalls and its SSG line in late 2007 are starting to see uptake this year, helping propel Juniper to the top spot in the category.

SonicWall found product innovation was key to retaining channel partner confidence, said Marvin Blough, vice president of worldwide sales.

"We really excelled this year in product innovation," he said, noting that SonicWall has refreshed about 50 percent of its product line, with the remainder set for a refresh in the next three to six months.

Another factor leading to SonicWall's dominance, Blough said, is the vendor's opening of a partner excellence center in Tempe, Ariz. There, he said, SonicWall took all outsourced support and insourced it, while also moving the channel management sales team and marketing organization to Tempe.

SonicWall also used the feedback from last year's Annual Report Card to ensure it's a company that's easy to do business with.

Overall, Blough said SonicWall's partner program isn't much different than it was 10 years ago. The key is keeping it simple to understand and simple to administer. That, coupled with a string of acquisitions during the last 24 months, has put SonicWall on top of solutions providers' minds.

"We're creating opportunities for partners to sell additional products to not only their existing customers, but [also to] new customers," he said.

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