Cisco nemesis Juniper Networks has been very busy maintaining and growing its share of the market, and it has been doing this ever since it first came to the spotlights.  The company is leveraging a number of business methods, which also helped it stay afloat during the recession, to achieve that goal. For once, chief executive Kevin Johnson has decided to hold monthly meetings called “Kevin Johnson Unplugged.” In these sessions, which usually draws between 200 and 300 employees, Johnson asks what’s on everyone’s mind.

“He wants unfiltered information about how things are really working, and this provides him a forum to be able to do that,” said Steven Rice, executive vice president of human resources, about Johnson’s chat sessions, which draw 200 to 300 employees.”

Juniper’s overall approach to the market and internal conditions seems to be paying off, which is indicated by the earnings call it held earlier this week. Revenue in Q1, 2011 rose 21 percent year over year to $1.1 billion, and net income of 24 percent. The networking company’s stocks rose by 3% in after-hours trading.

This growth is driven by a number of factors, including the company’s latest deal with Verizon. The mobile carrier is in fierce competiton with rival AT&T, and recently announced it is setting up 100G(Gbps) networks in the U.S. Juniper is supplying Verizon with the networking technology needed for this project. The company also reached a deal with New World Telecommunications Ltd to supply with MX960 and MX480 3D Universal EdgeRouters to support the Ethernet solutions New World offers to mobile operators in Hong Kong.

When it comes to Juniper and its networking push, truly innovative is fitting to describe the company’s single tie switch. Wikibon’s Stuart Miniman discussed how QFabric lives up to this standard, and continued to note that “Juniper should be on the short list of networking vendors to consider.”