Dell To OEM Juniper Networking Gear In Ongoing Data Center Push

Dell will OEM networking equipment and software from Juniper through its PowerConnect portfolio, part of a new strategic agreement that will also see Dell and Juniper jointly develop product sets for virtualized data centers using Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE).

The move, announced in a joint statement from the companies Tuesday, furthers pushes by both Dell and Juniper to compete with rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Cisco with designs on data center dominance.

Dell also said it would incorporate iSCSI storage products into new virtualization products developed as part of the deal. According to Dell, Juniper products resold through Dell will be available through Dell's direct and PartnerDirect channels.

"Juniper and Dell are a formidable team, and together we can deliver significant value for enterprise customers around the world. This OEM agreement is another great step in our sustained and successful push into the enterprise market," said Gerri Elliott, executive vice president, Strategic Alliances, Juniper Networks, in a statement. "We have the only infrastructure that includes integrated security, routing and switching running on a single operating system. And that uniform approach is a great benefit to IT organizations, from the smallest to the largest, as they tackle the challenges of an increasingly decentralized landscape."

Dell will resell four specific pieces of Juniper's catalog: its MX series routers, EX series Ethernet switches, SRX Series Services Gateways and JUNOS software platform. All were areas mentioned as strengths for the networking vendor during Juniper's most recent quarterly earnings call.

The OEM relationship is Dell's second major partnership around enterprise-level data center technologies in as many months. In September, Dell announced a deal with Brocade Communications to sell Brocade's networking switches -- a move that solution providers called "game changing" at the time.