But as it focuses on these new markets, Cisco has found that it is losing some control over the router market it has dominated so completely for years. But its sales are not growing as fast as Juniper's, which has grabbed nearly 23 per cent of the market in the last two years. And 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 being able to deliver products that supported every possible combination of protocols and interfaces back when there was a general lack of standardisation. But the industry has changed since then, and thanks to protocols such as IP, this capability is no longer special.
Customers also have new expectations.
For example, ISPs want to be able to turn on functionality such as IP filtering without losing system performance, and Juniper's products have proved well up to such tasks. The density of Juniper's routers mean they have smaller footprints, which is also popular with buyers. But Juniper is not alone in taking a little of the gloss from Cisco's strong market position. Network software maker Ironbridge Networks has also just launched a high-speed network router, which it claims provides significantly better performance than similar technology built by Cisco, at a lower cost. It is not the only startup trying to take a slice of the high-speed router market, however, with companies such as Avici and Pluris also bringing similar products to market.