Thoughts on Juniper

Has anyone else seen an influx of articles such as this one:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/081208-amazingmail-cisco-juniper.html?t51hb

I'm continually questioning myself as to whether I should be more actively pursuing Juniper certifications. How dominant are Juniper technologies in your workplace? Any comments on where Juniper is heading?

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Comments

tiersten

I'd say go get your Cisco certs first and then go for Juniper afterwards if you still want to. Generally I've found that most places will go for Cisco hardware. The old saying of "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" works for Cisco as well.

Juniper are certainly invading what used to be a core Cisco area so it'll be good to learn Juniper systems.

networker050184

tiersten wrote:

I'd say go get your Cisco certs first and then go for Juniper afterwards if you still want to. Generally I've found that most places will go for Cisco hardware. The old saying of "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" works for Cisco as well.

Juniper are certainly invading what used to be a core Cisco area so it'll be good to learn Juniper systems.

I agree with this. Cisco certifications are highly known and accepted in the field as the de facto industry network certifications.

darkerosxx

Anybody have numbers on market percentages Juniper/Cisco hold?

Edit:

From April 17,2008 @ http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/17/Cisco-Juniper-duke-it-out-over-operating-systems_1.html

Cisco in 2007 grabbed 82 percent of the $4.2 billion enterprise-router market, 54 percent of the $4.7 billion service-provider edge-router market, and 55 percent of the $2.7 billion service-provider core-router market, according to Dell'Oro Group. Juniper ran second to Cisco in every category, with 5 percent, 18 percent, and 30 percent shares, respectively. In LAN switching, Cisco had a 71.5 percent share of the $18 billion worldwide market in 2007, Dell'Oro says. Juniper isn't on the radar screen yet because its EX line began shipping just last month.

networker050184

This was posted in another Juniper vs Cisco thread and has market shares.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/041708-cisco-juniper-operating-systems.html

malcybood

Get some Cisco certs then look at Juniper would be my advice, unless you work in a Juniper heavy environment I'd say go for it.

Juniper and other vendors are jumping on the certification bandwagon like Cisco and I think we have Juniper to thank for promotions such as MS Second Shot and Cisco Comeback.

When Juniper released the "Junos as a second language" course + free shot at the JNCIA exams if you pass the "pre-assessment exam" etc I think the other vendors knee jerked into having to "do something" although I could be wrong and Cisco / Microsoft probably had it planned to do these promotions all along!

An observation I made in a recent Juniper trial is that their kit is quite pricey compared to Cisco equivelent (site to site VPNs), whioch is probably why it is not as widely spread as it could be. Saying that they do have a very large share of certain sectors for SSL / IPSec and application acceleration / TCP optimization products! It's all very cool stuff!

tiersten

malcybood wrote:

When Juniper released the "Junos as a second language" course + free shot at the JNCIA exams if you pass the "pre-assessment exam" etc

Its not free any more. Its just discounted. The original promotion was totally free exam but they changed it for 2008.

astorrs

The article the OP posted has some serious issues in my mind. It sounds like the company originally got sold the "Mercedes" package (5520's, 6509's complete with 24x7 premium smartnet contracts) when they didn't really need it.

Don't get me wrong Juniper makes some awesome stuff (and I am a huge fan and use it for clients without an existing Cisco implementation) but lets not cloud things.

GT-Rob

Cisco obviously is going to bring more oppertunities, but thats not to say there are not Juniper exclusive jobs out there.

They do seem to be trying to push themselves in the market more and compete with Cisco more and more these days.

rfult001

There are many similarities between IOS and JunOS (as far as syntax), making the jump from Cisco to Juniper down the road shouldn't be too difficult.

Juniper is quickly becoming popular with ISPs and very large corporations, even some major universities. I know we have a few Junipers set up on campus as border routers. That said, I am thinking about chasing down certs from both vendors.

-_M S K_-

tiersten wrote:

malcybood wrote:

When Juniper released the "Junos as a second language" course + free shot at the JNCIA exams if you pass the "pre-assessment exam" etc

Its not free any more. Its just discounted. The original promotion was totally free exam but they changed it for 2008.

the JNCIA-EX exam is 100% free till the 31st of August...

http://www.juniper.net/training/fasttrack/

tiersten

-_M S K_- wrote:

tiersten wrote:

malcybood wrote:

When Juniper released the "Junos as a second language" course + free shot at the JNCIA exams if you pass the "pre-assessment exam" etc

Its not free any more. Its just discounted. The original promotion was totally free exam but they changed it for 2008.

the JNCIA-EX exam is 100% free till the 31st of August...

http://www.juniper.net/training/fasttrack/

JNCIA-EX is new. They didn't used to have it. JNCIA-ER was 100% last year but 50% now.

-_M S K_-

yea, it is.

so anyone goin for this exam?

astorrs

-_M S K_- wrote:

yea, it is.

so anyone goin for this exam?

nope, never seen a Juniper switch in production yet. If I do and I have to work with it I will, otherwise no.

GT-Rob

Yeah I only ever come across the firewalls (GTs and SSGs).

I have thought about it (especially when it was free), but I honestly don't see enough jobs out there that interest me that want the experience/certification in their products yet.

cbigbrick

tiersten wrote:

I'd say go get your Cisco certs first and then go for Juniper afterwards if you still want to. Generally I've found that most places will go for Cisco hardware. The old saying of "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" works for Cisco as well.

Juniper are certainly invading what used to be a core Cisco area so it'll be good to learn Juniper systems.

Like tiersten said, go for Cisco first then Juniper. I am seeing alot more job ads with Cisco and Juniper experience in the DC area.

dynamik

Just curious, isn't the majority of the information you learn with one going to be applicable to the other?

networker050184

The underlying networking technology is the same as a lot of it is based on RFCs, but the command syntax is different for Juniper. There are also a lot of Cisco proprietary protocols out there (not sure about Juniper proprietary protocols).

Aldur

Something to keep in mind that even though Cisco is definitely more wide spread there is also an huge amount of people who are Cisco certified. There's lots of Cisco jobs and lots of Cisco certified people to fill those jobs.

At my work we are having troubles keeping people here because as soon as they get a little experience and some certs they get hit up with job offers from the big ISP's. Like me for example, I had no networking experience before I came to JTAC, I've been on the router team for 10 months, was able to get the JNCIP-M, and I'm working out a job with Qwest that could end up in the 6 figure range after annual bonus. Chances of doing that with Cisco with as little experience as I have?

My point is although there the field is wide and there is a lot of jobs for Cisco equipment, Juniper is growing and there is a serious deficit of Juniper certified people compared to Juniper jobs out there.

astorrs

Aldur wrote:

Juniper is growing and there is a serious deficit of Juniper certified people compared to Juniper jobs out there.

Very good points Aldur and something to keep in mind for those with access to Juniper equipment.