BAGALORE, INDIA: Juniper Networks and Polycom Inc. announced an alliance to improve customer experience for telepresence and video conferencing services.

Cisco is atleast 12 to 18 months behind us

The Juniper Networks, Polycom service provider solution will be availabile in mid-year 2010.

Gerri Elliott, executive vice president, strategic alliances, Juniper Networks, said: “Leveraging Junos Space, an open platform for ecosystem partners, Juniper and Polycom are creating a unique solution that will enable carriers to maximise the value of their existing networks to deliver scalable, high quality video services. This will help carriers to move away from siloed networks toward more intelligent and efficient converged networks that are more sustainable and profitable in the long-term.”

The solution will combine high-performance network infrastructure systems from Juniper with industry-leading telepresence and video conferencing systems from Polycom. Specifically, it includes the Junos Space network application platform and its subscriber suite that includes policy and identity services, the MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, and SRX Series Services Gateways with integrated routing and security for streamlined enterprise connectivity.

Key Polycom components include Polycom telepresence systems and visual communication infrastructure products, including the Polycom Distributed Media Application (DMA) that centralises call control and provides further failover redundancy.

Bob Hagerty, CEO, Polycom, said: “Visual communication is becoming an increasingly strategic tool in today’s dynamic, global business environment as organisations across industries are adopting it to work more effectively across distances and reduce costs."

The combination of the Junos Space network resource orchestration, real-time interactions between its policy and identity services, and the Junos operating system, with the Polycom DMA call control server enables a dynamic coordinated allocation of video and network resources, driven by user video session needs.

This allows service providers to more accurately control and deliver video quality of service on a converged network shared with other applications. By maximising their network capabilities and value, carriers can scale their networks more cost-effectively and realise higher margins for services.