Cisco vs. Juniper

Five years ago, it was considered that about 80 percent of the installed network equipment in the world falls on Cisco products. According to my observations, as well as on articles in various forums, it seems that the powerful network giant has been strongly pressed. Of course, some well-known and well-sold brands like QUTECH occupy their niche, but it is still quite modest in the sense of backbone networks (especially IP / MPLS), as well as in scope. But Juniper products confidently occupy cabinets with network equipment of operators, including such large ones as MTS and Rostelecom.

In my (somewhat modest) experience, MTS in a number of regions uses the Juniper MX 480 equipment on its networks as the so-called long-haule, in other words, the “intra-zone network of medium length”. And the trunk rings are built on Juniper's powerful high-performance platforms using IP / MPLS routing technology.

A similar picture is observed in Rostelecom. Moreover, as a client equipment, preference is given to a 24-port EX-2200 switch and a SRX210 router. Apparently, this is a fairly economically successful bundle. Such equipment begins to be used for the organization of IP VPN services, in particular, for large government clients.

The equipment of both companies uses different software. Cisco has IOS, Juniper has JunOS. According to some reviews, the latest operating system is more convenient. Both use CLI, the command line interface. In Juniper, the configuration is very similar to the C language - the command should end with a ";" - otherwise the compiler will generate an error. It is convenient that both the switch and the router can be “filled in” with a ready configuration file previously created in a text editor on a computer. You can edit the config directly in the device by connecting the console cable using a laptop or desktop computer using the well-known free software PuTTY.
')
In general, the experience with these devices left a pretty good impression. Workmanship is also at altitude. For example, the EX-2200 is simply a pleasure to take in hand, despite the fact that this is a rather large device in 19 inch format.

As the main routers for large providers (for example, Rostelecom), Juniper products are increasingly being used. And if the M40e platforms had already been used before, now the T4000 equipment is being actively introduced. The latter is quite noisy in the work; if you stand on the fan side, the pressure and temperature of the air are such that you can dry the towel.

So who will win? Some players leave the stage. For example, the products of a reputable company 3com now rarely meet. Will Cisco take the position? What are the predictions for Juniper? Personally, I like the products of both firms. And what is especially important, both of them take care of providing materials for studying both the equipment and the principles of routing and switching. But while in this question Cisco, of course, is ahead. That only costs one Cisco Academy, the regional branch of which gave me the knowledge of CCNA. But, nevertheless, Juniper cannot fail to evoke sympathy. We wish him good luck.