Juniper Partner Conference: Software-defined Networking Arrives?

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) is set to promote its software-defined networking (SDN) strategy at the company’s Global Partner Conference this week in Las Vegas. But can Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson and his lieutenants stand out from SDN moves by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), VMware (NYSE: VMW), Brocade Networks (NASDAQ: BRCD) and more? Hmmm…

Juniper acquired Contrail Systems, a stealth-mode SDN startup, for $176 million in December 2012. The move followed VMware’s buyout of Nicira and Cisco’s investment in Insieme.

VMware has spent recent months evangelizing the software-defined datacenter, and a VMware official last week said the company would both compete and cooperate with networking vendors. The statement emerged at Tech Data‘s TDCloud Partner Summit near Tampa, Fla. Meanwhile, Brocade has named a new CEO to help accelerate its SDN strategy.

Now along comes the Juniper Global Partner Conference (GPC), running Jan. 14-16 in Las Vegas. CEO Johnson — along with marketing, sales and channel leaders — are on hand to update roughly 1,000 partners on the company’s channel strategy.

Earlier this evening, The VAR Guy spotted a data center war plan in a Juniper booth. It described how Juniper partners can counter Cisco Systems and other rivals, but the document was not available for hand-out to the media (bummer…).

Where does Contrail Systems fit in the Juniper strategy? Hmmm… Scan old Contrail Systems blogs, and it’s clear the company believes its virtual networking technology will appeal to cloud services providers and data center operators that want to shift from physical to virtual systems.

The VAR Guy is intrigued and digging for more info.