Juniper focusing on network stability

Shaun Page

Latency, jitter and the weather come top of the list when talking business with Shaun Page, local boss of network communication specialist Juniper Networks.

Page, vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, says network stability and assurance of service are the company's key focus.

Latency, the delay in transmission, and jitter, the variation in delay time, can make a phone call play out like a scene from a war movie.

Based in California, Juniper has offices in Auckland and Wellington and supplies Vodafone, Telecom and TelstraClear with the majority of their networks' core IP routing devices.

"We're all about making sure the guy that's making a voice over IP, or the guy that's engaged in a video conference call, gets priority in the network versus someone that's just sending an email."

Juniper's purchase last April of NetScreen Technologies for US$4 billion ($5.65 billion) added security, firewall and intrusion detection capabilities to the company's portfolio.

"The beauty of the NetScreen acquisition was whilst we got a whole bunch of security technology that our customers had been asking us for, we also got a capability and a suite of products that were suited to markets outside of carriers."

Page says delivering network stability will also drive the uptake of new online services for both business and residential users. But, he adds, there's one element toward improving uptake that's beyond human control - the weather.

In Nordic countries, he says, it is more common to have online data, voice and video on demand, the so-called triple-play solution.

"Those countries are different to Australia and New Zealand because we don't get snowed in here [and] there's so much to do outside of the home. So there's not a dependence on the internet for entertainment."

Page says the challenge is to find services people will be prepared to pay for.

"It's really a question of do we build it and they will come," he said. "Are we sure that delivering triple-play services to the market is something we can make a dollar out of?"

Delivering new triple-play services comes down to the will of the service providers rather than technology, he says.

"They could do it tomorrow, it's not that difficult to do. It's [a question of] what is the payback here, what's the market opportunity?"

He adds service providers are cautious about speculating on market demand. "They've all been burned by that before."

At the age of 33, Page could be considered young to lead a national division of a company aiming for US$2 billion of global revenue this year. But in the technology sector age is not a factor.

"It's [about] what you can bring to the table, what value can you contribute, and let me tell you, you get caught out pretty easily in this business if you've got nothing to add." 

Shaun Page

* Favourite gadget: BlackBerry.

* Next big thing in tech: Wireless mobility.

* Alternative career: Professional golfer or racing driver.

* Spare time: Family and golf.

* Favourite sci-fi movie: The Matrix. "You can make yourself believe, think and do whatever you think you can do".