Cisco vs Juniper: Chambers Predicts Service Provider Gains

John Chambers

First, a point of clarification: Cisco is currently in its fiscal Q1 2013. But during the earnings call, Chambers described how expects service provider spending to perform in July-August 2012 vs. January-July 2012.

Chambers said:

Translation: Chambers is sounding cautiously optimistic about the service provider market. But let’s not declare victory quite yet. Chambers said the service provider market is mixed across the U.S. Plus, Chambers is worried about the top five or six service providers in Europe, where spending may not be quite as healthy as some people had hoped around six months ago.

Still, Chambers likes how Cisco is performing vs. rival suppliers in the service provider market. He told Wall Street analysts to look at “the success of our service provider business, where we’ve moved from an individual product provider in today’s market where many of our customers use Cisco as their best strategic partner, and being their top business and technology objectives. It is a clear example of our strategy playing out to our advantage.”

Much later in the earnings call, during a Q&A with analysts, Chambers took this indirect shot at Juniper Networks.

Read between the lines and Chambers is predicting service provider wins against Juniper. But let’s not forget that Juniper isn’t standing still.