The Branch Office: Why Cisco, Not Juniper

Competitive Analysis

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Cloud computing, rich-media applications, and the explosion of mobile devices are placing new demands and requirements on the enterprise network. The way in which applications are delivered, the way in which they are consumed, and the types of applications have fundamentally changed and will continue to change drastically. The traditional enterprise network—specifically the branch office and WAN—that is a central piece to connecting the end users to the cloud services is not architected to support these new trends. In fact, it has become the weakest link in the network with poor performance, inadequate security, and lack of application visibility and complex management.

The Cisco® Cloud Intelligent WAN—based on the Cisco enterprise routing, security, and WAN optimization solutions—connects branch-office and remote users to the cloud and enables organizations to deliver a superior user experience at scale to any application, any service, any user, and any device, using network-integrated intelligence to optimize application performance, enhance security, and simplify management.

Figure 1. The Value of Integration

This integrated services and architectural approach helps ensure that the entire IT infrastructure works together transparently while also reducing complexity, eliminating uncertainty and delay around deployments, and reducing TCO. With the best services and support organization in the industry (CIO Insight magazine, 2010 Vendor Value Survey), Cisco is there with you to ensure successful deployment and ongoing operations.

Now consider a hypothetical branch office with approximately 150 employees and WAN bandwidth of 45 Mbps. The branch office is implementing an IP voice system, a wireless LAN (WLAN) system covering the office, and WAN acceleration to optimize its connection to the head office. The branch office also has some custom applications for which it needs a small server. Each cube and office has a LAN connection with Power over Ethernet (PoE) for its IP phones.

Figure 1 shows general TCO advantages of the Cisco integrated services approach to the branch office

Competitive Analysis

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) C11-696983-00 01/12

A Cisco implementation of this hypothetical situation would require four devices in the wiring closet: a Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) router and three LAN switches. On the other hand, a customer using Juniper would need eight devices—six from Juniper and two from other vendors. The required Juniper devices include a SRX Services Gateway, a WXC Application Acceleration Platform, a WLC Wireless LAN Controller, and three EX Series switches. IP voice would require a gateway and call-control device from a vendor such as Avaya, and the small server could come from a vendor such as Dell or HP.

Cisco Solution: Fifty Percent Fewer Devices

Cisco provides a premium solution, yet the total bill of materials (BOM) to provide the services detailed in our example for a 150-person branch office is approximately $88,000—much less than the approximately $155,000 needed to provide similar services using a combination of Juniper and other vendors.

Cisco Solution: Forty-Three Percent Fewer Capital Expenditures

However, the initial capital expenditures (CapEx) are but a portion of the overall cost of owning a network; we must also factor in implementation, management, and the cost of downtime.

Table 1 summarizes the differences in operating expenses (OpEx) between the Cisco and Jupiter solutions.

Table 1. Overall 5-Year OpEx Costs for Cisco ISR-Based 150-Person Branch Office vs. Juniper

Factor Cisco JuniperYear 1 implementation $2,806 $5,612

Annual management contracts $7,722 $18,772

Annual downtime cost $2,137 $4,274

Total OpEx, 5 years $52,103 $120,844

Cisco Solution: Fifty-Seven Percent Fewer OpEx Over 5 Years

The Cisco solution achieves 43 percent lower CapEx simply because the sum of the individual list prices for the equipment in the solution is lower than that for the Juniper-based solution outlined previously. Lower device count also helps achieve an OpEx reduction of 57 percent. Combining the CapEx and OpEx savings, the Cisco solution achieves a 49 percent lower overall cost (refer to Table 2).

Higher OpEx in the Juniper-based solution is a result of increased maintenance service contract expenses due to the number of contracts and more estimated implementation and downtime expenses (that is, personnel costs to deploy and maintain the equipment).

The integrated Cisco approach makes for faster deployment; less complexity; faster, more certain implementation; reduced complexity; better performance; and easier management. The Cisco approach delivers an integrated, tested, and verified known good solution. A piecemeal approach, in contrast, may introduce unexpected complications, such as interoperability problems with unified communications and firewalls, which may be difficult, frustrating, and expensive to overcome.

Table 2. Total 5-Year Cost, CapEx + OpEx

Factor Cisco Juniper, etc.Total CapEx $88,240 $154,844

Total OpEx (5 year) $52,103 $120,844

Total 5-year cost $140,343 $275,687

Cisco Solution: Forty-Nine Percent Less Overall Cost Over 5 Years

The Cisco Advantage

With a 25-year history of innovation and leadership, Cisco is uniquely positioned to understand and provide for the needs of the branch office, a role for which the Cisco ISR Router Family was specifically developed. Although we emphasize an architectural approach to building networks, the value in working with Cisco goes beyond the devices themselves and extends to areas such as professional services and support, both of which can be vital in terms of ensuring risk-free, deterministic deployments.

Just as success can often be made (or broken) by factors beyond the router itself, TCO of a network is much like an iceberg, with much of the cost being OpEx, including the cost of maintenance, facilities, and implementation. Only a relatively small portion—roughly 20 percent of the overall TCO of the network—is the cost of the network gear itself.

Learn more about the Cisco Integrated Service Routers at:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10906/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html.

To get a customized report on the TCO, ROI, and energy savings with the Cisco ISR G2 and Cisco ASR 1000 Aggregation Services Routers, please go to:http://www.cisco.com/assets/prod/rt/flash/branch-wan-calc/index.html.