'We are not ignoring SMBs'

How do you see the networking market in Asia Pacific? How is it growing

and why?



It's surely moving northwards. And it should continue to grow stronger.

Asia Pacific is a very sizeable market due to a huge population in China and

India, and we were surprised as to how rapidly Asia Pac has invested in

broadband. The market will witness strong contributions on both the carrier and

enterprise side. Asia Pacific presents huge opportunities for expansion because

of the sheer size of the market.

How is the Asia Pacific market different from the US market?



The US market is witnessing a bit of transition, as a lot of consolidation

is taking place. Once this consolidation is completed, it will end up driving

the industry better. As for the Asia Pacific market, it is diverse and different

from that of the US, including on the politico-economic front.

Which verticals are more lucrative for Juniper in the Asia Pac market?



There is some variation across Asia Pac. For example, Hong Kong has done

pretty well on the financial services front. For China and India, massive

infrastructure development is taking place and the lucrative verticals there are

power and transportation. Also government, retail and financial services are big

verticals.

How are you focusing on the SMB market in India and Asia Pacific?



There is a lot of interest on our part to focus on the SMB market in Asia

Pacific, particularly in India and China. Although 77 of the Fortune 100

companies are Juniper's customers, that does not mean we ignore SMBs. On this

front, we are betting big on managed services. Carrier partnerships play an

important role here because they have established relationships with SMBs. So we

need to leverage that.

What kinds of products are SMBs buying? What are the key drivers in the

market?



Small and medium businesses usually operate with limited IT resources, and

security may not be high on their priority list, especially compared to large

enterprises which usually have dedicated IT personnel to manage enterprise

security.

SMEs need to understand that the impact of a network intrusion, or

introducing a virus or worm in their internal network, is very costly in

financial terms and also affects the company's productivity. Juniper has been

successful in addressing SME security needs with our integrated Firewall/VPN

appliances for their perimeter defense. By combining firewall, anti-virus,

URL-filtering, DOS and DDOS, and application level protection for common

e-commence apps such as e-mails, Web, ftp, and DNS, in an appliance, SMEs can

afford the best all-round defense solution even with a limited budget.

Which countries in Asia Pacific are big markets for networking products?



China, India and Japan and Australia are big markets. Some markets are not

that big but we still manage to drive growth.

What are the key elements of Juniper's market strategy for Asia Pacific?



We have an overall strategy to grow and make partners. Partners need support

and we will continue to invest in them. We also want to increase efficiency in

managed services. On the service provider front, we continue to leverage the

broadband boom.

In terms of Asia Pacific market share, how is Juniper placed vis-à-vis

its competitor?



We compete with a number of different local vendors in every country. Our

approach — and it is something we do around the world — is to be more

concerned with the customer and its requirements than with the competition. Our

experience is that if you solve the customer's problems, the competition more

or less takes care of itself.

Vimarsh Bajpai



vimarshb@cybermedia.co.in