Juniper Networks is looking to jump the gun on its main rivals in the Philippines, announcing network optimization products that result from its recent acquisition of Peribit Networks and Redline Networks.
In a recent media briefing in Singapore, Juniper officials announced that the company has completed its acquisition of Peribit and Redline, reportedly worth a combined US$469 million.
Peribit makes networking equipment that optimizes wide area network (WAN) performance while Redline"s products are designed for data centers in improving delivery of Web applications.
Products that belong to this emerging "application acceleration" segment apply more to users in Southeast Asian countries, said Brad Gray, Juniper"s vice president for Asia Pacific.
"Leased line is still relatively expensive in the region and users want to get more out of their networks and have faster output on their networks as well," Gray said.
Juniper plays strong in network security, especially after its $4 billion acquisition of Netscreen Technologies last year. With its foray into applications acceleration, the company is looking to attract users, especially telecom players that deploy bandwidth-hungry applications.
Gray referred to users looking to deploy "triple play" ¨C or voice, video and data ¨C through their networks.
Peribit"s technology allows corporate users to extend network performance down to remote locations, without compromising bandwidth. Redline"s products, meanwhile, sits in data centers and designed to improve the way Web servers handle traffic.
"Even if you buy more bandwidth, performance still slow because of applications bottleneck," said Tony Lee, Juniper"s senior director for emerging technologies in Asia Pacific.
Juniper now sells previously Peribit appliances under the WX product line and Redline products under the DX line. Base price for the WX starts at $1,995 and DX at $31,995.
Analyst IDC pegs the total market value for application acceleration products at roughly $1 billion for 2005 and increase steadily to $1.6 billion in the next four years.
Cisco Systems, Juniper"s leading rival, announced last May it would acquire Fine Ground, which also makes network optimization gear, for $70 million.