Juniper Scores High with NYSE Deal

Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR - Analyst Report) won a major deal from NYSE Euronext (NYX - Snapshot Report) to build an ultra-low latency IT infrastructure network for global trading data centers. NYSE, a financial trading network, is the largest enterprise customer for Juniper to date. This deal is most significant as it marks Juniper's expansion into selling routers and switches to large enterprise customers from its traditional focus on internet service providers.

Under the deal, NYSE plans to deploy 200 Juniper switches for a time-sensitive, low-latency 10Gbps Ethernet network. The exchange will utilize Juniper's Data Center Infrastructure Solutions at its two new data centers located in Greater New York and London. This will help NYSE Euronext to consolidate the total number of its global data centers from ten down to four.

NYSE predicts that Juniper solutions will drive the speed of its data center traffic to 50 microseconds from 150 microseconds when the sites become operational in 2010. This significant speed boost will help in generating increased revenue and scalability for NYSE.

Juniper will help design a more advanced network for the Exchange's new data centers and in building the world's fastest trading network for the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE said that Juniper's network will support several billion daily transactions and quotes across various asset classes and geographies, with extremely low latency, or fewer delays in data transmission. This ability to simplify data centers will also help lower costs for NYSE.

In addition, leveraging the high-performance and faster-networking switching and routing technologies of the Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switches and MX Series Ethernet Services Routers will enable the NYSE trading platform to consolidate network layers as well as reduce capital and operational expenses across the infrastructure. Juniper Networks Data Center Infrastructure Solutions can significantly reduce network complexity and total cost of ownership by up to 52% in capital expenditures, up to 44% in power, up to 44% in cooling, and up to 55% in data center rack space.

In our view, this is a big win for Juniper as it will strengthen its focus on lowering latency and high speed networking. It will also provide a competitive advantage over its rival Cisco (CSCO - Analyst Report). The deal is expected to increase the demand for advanced network equipment, despite a global economic slowdown.