ROUND ROCK, Texas, Oct. 27 -- Dell and Juniper Networks, Inc. today announced an agreement to offer networking solutions under Dell's PowerConnect brand that enable customers to deploy a common network management platform and network operating system to help reduce operating expenses. In addition, the companies plan to work together on open, standards-based solutions for virtualized datacenters and deliver technology solutions using Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), also known as Data Center Bridging (DCB) and iSCSI to improve network economics.

As the notion of traditional, physical datacenter boundaries extend to virtual environments, customers must adapt to a variety of technological challenges including virtualization, security, bandwidth utilization and network management. By signing this original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement, Dell and Juniper intend to deliver a secure network infrastructure -- from a customer's traditional datacenter out to its branch offices, remote workers, customers and business partners -- that can dynamically adjust to meet these challenges and provide orchestrated management of users, workloads and data -- avoiding single-vendor lock-in.

Dell also plans to market, service and support Juniper's high-performance networking solutions to its large enterprise, small and medium business customers and public organizations. The products Dell will deliver under its PowerConnect brand include the Juniper Networks MX Series services routers, EX Series Ethernet switches and SRX Series services gateways, all running JUNOS Software. Dell expects to make these products available to customers via its direct and PartnerDirect channels.

"Networking is an important piece in providing customers with choices for how they optimize their datacenter operations to improve efficiency," said Brad Anderson, senior vice president of the Enterprise Product Group at Dell. "This agreement will help address many of our customer's biggest challenges including a dramatic rise in security concerns, an increasingly dispersed workforce and challenges brought on with the advent of the virtualized datacenter."

"Juniper and Dell are a formidable team, and together we can deliver significant value for enterprise customers around the world. This OEM agreement is another great step in our sustained and successful push into the enterprise market," said Gerri Elliott, executive vice president of Strategic Alliances at Juniper Networks. "We have the only infrastructure that includes integrated security, routing and switching running on a single operating system. And that uniform approach is a great benefit to IT organizations, from the smallest to the largest, as they tackle the challenges of an increasingly decentralized landscape."

Product Detail

• MX Series Routers -- MX Series Ethernet Services Routers offer advanced routing capabilities, such as Multiprotocol Label Switching network virtualization, low-latency multicast, advanced quality of service (QoS), and high availability.
   
• EX Series Ethernet Switches -- EX Series Ethernet Switches deliver the next-generation of switching technology for today's -- and tomorrow's -- networks. With the EX Series, businesses can deploy a cost-effective family of switches that delivers the high availability (HA), integrated security and operational excellence needed today, while providing a platform for supporting future requirements.
   
• SRX Series Services Gateways -- For organizations supporting extranets, SRX Series Services Gateways can help lower the cost of delivering new capabilities while reducing risk, and satisfying end users. These services gateways integrate leading security, connectivity, and application delivery capabilities into a single platform for a safe, affordable, and consistent high-performance communications foundation.
   
• JUNOS Software -- A core foundation of Juniper products since 1997, JUNOS Software delivers a reliable, high-performance platform to help automate network operations including routing, switching and security -- with programming interfaces and a software developer kit to help unlock more value from the network.

About Dell

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is a leading technology provider to commercial and public enterprises around the world. www.dell.com.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net.

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Source: Dell Inc.; Juniper Networks, Inc.