2/13/2006 -- Watch out, Cisco Systems Inc., because Juniper Networks is gunning for you in the mid-market, too. Juniper last week announced its Secure Services Gateway (SSG) 500 Series for branch and medium-sized offices.

Based on Juniper's ScreenOS operating system, the SSG 500 Series delivers up to 1Gbps firewall and 500Mbps VPN throughput and can provide optional intrusion prevention, Web filtering, anti-virus and anti-spam capabilities. What's more, Juniper's two SSG models, the SSG 520 and SSG 550, are priced to move, starting at $6,000 for the former and $10,000 for the latter.

Some analysts are calling it a shot fired right across Cisco's bow. "The SSG gives Juniper a high performance and highly flexible platform to challenge competitors in the security/unified threat management market, while opening up opportunities to compete for business in branch office environments where customers are revisiting the concept of converged data and security, competing head-to-head with Cisco's Integrated Services Routers," says Joel Conover, a principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.

Conover thinks the SSG could be an especially attractive proposition for enterprise customers that need to roll out secure and scalable connectivity in branch or remote office environments. "In the enterprise security market, Juniper is well established as a top-tier preferred security partner, and the SSG provides customers with an outstanding solution to support their next-generation networking requirements," he points out.

The branch office is currently dominated by Cisco, Conover concedes, but he believes the SSG Series could have a "disruptive" effect in that space. "Unlike many competitors vying for market share and mind share in the enterprise branch, Juniper enters the market with a trusted and respected brand, thanks to its success in the carrier routing sector. The combination of a robust platform and a strong brand will give Juniper a major boost when looking for new business in the enterprise branch office market," he argues.

It's about time. Two years ago, Juniper purchased NetScreen, a secure appliance and VPN specialist, which instantly catapulted it to the forefront of the network security market. Since then, Conover says, Juniper has been slow to incorporate and enhance the former NetScreen technologies.

With the new SSG Series platforms, he argues, the company has done just that.

"The Juniper SSG is the platform that customers have expected from Juniper since the acquisition of NetScreen, and Juniper's presence in the market with a highly competitive security and routing offering will stimulate the entire competitive market for security devices, and particularly access routers," he says. "Other competitors such as Nortel [via its Tasman acquisition] are also stirring up a market that has long been quietly dominated by Cisco. Juniper's delivery of the SSG is well timed, entering the market during a period where many customers are revisiting their technology in the branch office, investing in platforms that will address the need for future capacity and functionality."

Not that Cisco is completely edentulated in the face of Juniper's SSG salvo. "Juniper will...aggressively need to respond to other functional and value-proposition competitive claims. Juniper's key competitor, Cisco, offers many additional integrated features that are gaining varying degrees of acceptance in the market," Conover concedes. Specifically, says Conover, Juniper must bring its wide area application acceleration technology, which it acquired from the former Peribit, into the SSG to compete with Cisco's ACNS add-on module. In addition, Juniper must find a way to bring managed wireless LAN functionality into the SSG. "[W]hile the SSG offers numerous features to preserve and enhance the quality of voice across the device, Cisco still has a leg up on Juniper, with the capability to deliver true converged communications capabilities and voice survivability features on the ISR," he concludes. -Stephen Swoyer