Juniper Networks Shows ‘Swagger’ with Ambitious Growth Strategy
Are we up for the challenge? You’re damn right we are," said Juniper CEO Rami Rahim.
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Juniper still maintains a small share of the overall market – it stands at less than 6% in total. However, channel leader Gordon Mackintosh described this as a “tremendous opportunity” – something backed up by the growth momentum presented in the company’s financials this week.
“There are hundreds of thousands of accounts, based on our market share, that haven’t bought Juniper yet. So do the planning and due diligence to determine exactly who we’re going to go after together,” Mackintosh told partners.
The firm is adding incentives to partners, specifically around white space and new logos.
“We’re not going to slow down,” he said. “Some of our competitors are, but we’re not. Why should we? We are going to invest significantly over the forthcoming years.”
Mackintosh laid out some topline figures representing Juniper’s channel growth over the past three years.
The channel’s contribution to the overall business has grown from 71% in 2019 to 81% today.
Juniper partners now contribute 12 points more to the overall Juniper business than three years ago.
Its enterprise businesses grown at a 20% CAGR compared to service providers and cloud at 8%, reflecting the firm’s transition away from its service provider business.
Distribution partners have driven 1,500 new transacting partners. It also cited a growth in deal registration of 60%, with partner incentives growing at 50%.
“We’re building great momentum together; phenomenal results,” said Mackintosh.
CEO Rami Rahim appeared by video at the event with the news that the firm wants to double revenue across all segments in five years.
“In the past few years, we have put in motion a series of intentional transformational moves to position ourselves on the right side of the industry change. We invested for differentiation and for growth. We’ve gone from a hardware-driven company to a solution-based company. [We] maintain a healthy business that’s balanced among service providers, cloud providers and enterprises.”
“We can’t just relax in the wake of our recent success. The world wants more from us. Are we up for the challenge? You’re damn right we are.”
Juniper is also steering partners toward offering network as a service (NaaS). The firm forecasts the market for NaaS to grow at about 34% over the next three years.
“Customer buying behavior is changing,” said Mackintosh. “We’re moving to become even more of a trusted adviser for customers. Many customers are struggling on the back that a great resignation to hire people. They’re more dependent than ever before on you, our trusted partners. With all of this and shift the new consumption models and ARR, they simply lend [themselves] to our technology stack and our business models. We’re really well positioned to gain from this opportunity.”
He also cited McKinsey stats that show only 11% of executives believe their current business model is ready through 2023.
“So that means that the other 89% are an opportunity for us to go after their technology and your value-added services. So with these market dynamics, the recognition of technology, we have an opportunity here to really build out the network of the future for our customers.”
He also said partners that build a managed service practice with Juniper may earn up to a 32% profit.
Despite its ambitious plans for the enterprise, Juniper isn’t planning a big partner recruitment campaign. Instead, it plans to enable its existing partners to pursue enterprise opportunities.
“The investments that we’re making now are creating the foundations to make that growth trajectory,” said Dale Smith, UK&I channel director. [It] will take a lot of hard work and some great partnerships to come to fruition. But … in the share-taking game right now.
“What is good for me personally is that now we have the right partners to execute on this strategy. We’re not out there doing mass recruitment. We’re focusing our time on the partners that we’ve got, investing in them. They’re investing in us and we’re now in execution mode. The partners are seeing that you know the SEMA wins and seeing the traction.
“It’s a year of execution, and we are going to take some significant share.”
Rich Butcher, managing director of Juniper Partner of the Year, Nomios, attended the event. He believes Juniper’s acquisition of AI firm Mist Systems has “transformed” Juniper into “a completely different company.”
“The fact that the enterprise is now bigger than service provider with Juniper is unbelievable. Without Mist, they had no chance of getting that,” he said.
“They’ve gone from being a switch manufacturer, which to be honest, there are lots of switch manufacturers out there. And it’s hard to differentiate with switches. But when you start putting AI-driven enterprise behind it, [but then] you start reducing the ticketing, and you have amazing Wi-Fi that’s really easy to implement, and to maintain.
“They’ve got Wi-Fi and switching all under one banner with Mist now. That’s why it’s transformed, why it’s got a real market edge at the moment.”
Photo courtesy Nicescene/Shutterstock
Rich Butcher, managing director of Juniper Partner of the Year, Nomios, attended the event. He believes Juniper’s acquisition of AI firm Mist Systems has “transformed” Juniper into “a completely different company.”
“The fact that the enterprise is now bigger than service provider with Juniper is unbelievable. Without Mist, they had no chance of getting that,” he said.
“They’ve gone from being a switch manufacturer, which to be honest, there are lots of switch manufacturers out there. And it’s hard to differentiate with switches. But when you start putting AI-driven enterprise behind it, [but then] you start reducing the ticketing, and you have amazing Wi-Fi that’s really easy to implement, and to maintain.
“They’ve got Wi-Fi and switching all under one banner with Mist now. That’s why it’s transformed, why it’s got a real market edge at the moment.”
Photo courtesy Nicescene/Shutterstock
JUNIPER PARTNER EXECUTIVE SUMMIT — “It’s time for us to have some swagger.”
That was the message from Juniper channel leader Gordon Mackintosh (pictured above) at this week’s Juniper Partner Executive Summit.
Channel Futures was there in Madrid, Spain, where the focus on the campaign Juniper is waging in the enterprise.
Juniper has attempted to penetrate the enterprise market in the past without a great deal of success. However, this push already appears more successful. Some have pointed to its 2019 acquisition of Mist Systems as a game-changer for customers. To that point, enterprise now represents 38% of Juniper’s revenues — the vendors’ largest vertical.
On top of that, Mackintosh revealed that Juniper aims to double its enterprise business over the next three years. At a high level, the firm wants to double its revenue across all segments within five years.
“Ninety-eight-plus percent of our business in the enterprise space goes through our partners. Not very many vendors could get on stage and make that statement,” Mackintosh said. “And we have no intention of changing that mix. Our goal is to double our enterprise business over the next three years.”
To achieve that, the firm is investing more in salespeople, brand awareness and lead generation.
“When others are starting to pull back, we’re going to be investing,” added Mackintosh.
“There’s a difference between arrogance and confidence. For me, we have earned the right to be confident. Perhaps it’s time to have a little swagger. A little bounce in our step — a little partner swagger,” he said.
See the slideshow above to see how Juniper plans to get its swag on.
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