However, Cisco is still doing well overall, although not as well as its rivals in certain key areas. Turnover is not growing as fast as that of Juniper, which has grabbed almost 23 per cent of the high-end router market in the past two years. Juniper is now trying to extend its reach into Cisco's traditional heartland by coming out with its new M5 and M10 routers. Cisco achieved its position in the router market by delivering products that supported every possible combination of protocols and interfaces at a time when there was a general lack of standards. But the industry has changed since then, and this capability is no longer special.
Customers also have new expectations.
Internet service providers want to be able to use IP filtering without losing system performance, and Juniper's products have proved well up to such tasks. The density of Juniper's routers means that they also have smaller footprints. It hasn't missed the convergence boat at all. Its wireless local area networks and IP telephony products are well positioned in the key areas, such as security and content switching. It would be wrong to see the networking market of the future as simply a contest between Cisco and the rest over control of communications infrastructure.