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Juniper Thursday confirmed plans to kill its MobileNext line of mobile packet cores, planning instead to target the mobile operator market with a sharper focus on its SDN and virtualization technologies.
"We have made the decision to end-of-life the MobileNext solution," a Juniper spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CRN. "However, our strategy remains unchanged: to virtualize mobile networks and deliver innovation through our existing portfolio of backhaul, security, routing and edge services with products such as the MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, SRX Series Services Gateways and JunosV App Engine software virtualization platform."
The spokesperson said Juniper "will continue to work with our partners to deliver best-in-class solutions that help customers improve network economics and accelerate delivery of new mobile services."
[Related: Worldwide Partner Development VP Latest Exec To Leave Juniper]
Juniper's decision to take MobileNext out of commission comes as the company merges its Edge Services Business Unit into its Routing Business Unit, according to an internal Juniper memo obtained by Network World. Daniel Hua, senior vice president of Juniper's Routing Business Unit and the Juniper executive who drafted the memo, said the merger is aimed at driving alignment between Juniper's virtual services and routing product lines.
"The compelling reason driving this organization alignment is to increase synergy and focus under the umbrella of a single routing business unit," Hua wrote. "We believe this step will ensure close alignment of our embedded and virtual services with our market-leading MX and PTX platforms."
Juniper launched MobileNext -- known in its development phase as 'Project Falcon' -- at the Mobile World Congress event in February 2011. MobileNext offered 2G/3G and LTE-evolved packet core functions, enabling mobile operators to better handle the explosion of mobile devices onto their networks, and to ensure what Juniper called a "seamless handoff" of services between 3G and LTE networks.
NEXT: Limited Impact
