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You mentioned Juniper R&D, but we've also seen the M&A engine pick up like crazy in recent months. Acquisitions that Juniper's made like Trapeze and Altor seem to be exemplars of where you think the puck is going for networking. Is it safe to say that's what's driving these acquisitions?
Yeah, no question. We have a clear vision of the solutions that are going to be required for the mobile Internet and cloud computing, and the value creation activity is in our investment in organic R&D. That said, we saw a number of strategic acquisitions that complement that R&D well, that allow us to acquire companies with great intellectual property and great talent, and allow us to bring that to the portfolio of products.
Ankeena provided content distribution that ran on Junos with our MX3D router -- that's perfect synergy. With SMobile, it's the fact that we had Junos Pulse in an SSL VPN offering and can integrate antivirus, antimalware an parental controls -- another very strong strategic alignment. You look at Altor, the security software runs in our SRX systems, combined with Altor's security capability in the hypervisors of VMware, you have the opportunity to extend physical security to virtual security. And then of course Trapeze is very much aligned with the campus and branch focus and our EX switching products. We've been very thoughtful about strategically aligned acquisitions that complement the organic R&D and add to the customer value proposition.
So all of these are clear examples of where it made more sense to buy, rather than build?
Yes, in those cases. And Altor was a partner -- they partnered with us related to Junos. Ankeena had written software on Junos. Trapeze, we had a clear view of how the intellectual property complemented what we had done in Junos with our EX switching. And SMobile was writing to Junos Pulse. So three out of our of those were already partners writing to Junos or Junos Pulse or Junos Space, and Trapeze had a clear connection with our switch business.
Assuming you did kick the tires on Trapeze's wireless LAN competitors as well…
Yes.
…why was Trapeze the best fit?
A couple things. When it comes to enterprise wireless LAN, the approach today is that most LAN providers have the wireless as an overlay on an existing switching network. Acquiring a company that had a big install base didn't serem like the right approach. We want to take the EX switching and solve problems in a meaningful way with the wireless asset, and do that in a way that also simplifies the approach and experience for the user and does it at a different economic benefit for the customer. Trapeze fit all those criteria.
Trapeze does have a much smaller footprint than a lot of those wireless LAN competitors. Juniper, however, has a lot of national partners who have good relationships with Aruba, Meru and the other guys, and now are being asked to feel out going to market with wireless LAN with Juniper. How do you square that with them?
I think we have a vision that's an end-to-end solution for what happens in the campus and the branch. Wireless by itself, without thinking about integrated security and how that translates to your switch infrastructure, is not the right solution, and so at the end of the day, we can combine what we do with wireless LAN and Trapeze with our SRX security, EX switches and Junos for a very unique solution for customers. We think that's a significant reason for partners to engage and make that the primary go-to-market solution for customers.
NEXT: Where Will Juniper Expand Next?
