It’s still Juniper vs. Cisco after all.  Many were surprised when the upset Juniper executive, David Yen, resigned, effective immediately only to jump to a competitor’s camp and lead Cisco’s server access and virtualization technology faction, despite the recent top level and processes revamp within the enterprise.  Reports said that the recent promotion of Stefan Dyckerhoff to head Platform Systems Group led to Yen’s departure from the company. Yen has led the fabric and switching technologies team for Juniper. And now that he’s gone, the big question is: what will happen to QFabric, a project that he perpetrated?  This was readily answered by Juniper Networks in the recent Interop 2011 in Las Vegas. They plan to move on and in fact, outlined QFabric’s roadmap in that event.

Abner Germanow, Juniper’s Director of Enterprise Marketing, explains how QFabric takes the components of a data center switch and particularly expands them into separate components: “What used to be a line card looks like a top-of-rack switch, what used to be the backplane now looks like a chassis, and what used to be the supervisor is now a server,” he said in an interview.” He then added, “I prefer to use the word unique. He adds that the fabric’s roots as a single switch means that it’s no more proprietary than any of Juniper’s competitors’. “It’s just like I can’t plug a Cisco line card into someone else’s switch.”

This development proves that Juniper is relentless in holding on to its lead over the unhealthy organization that is Cisco. As the latter faces more bad news, the former keeps itself busy with partnerships, upgrades and updates that include the introduction of the new Universal WAN that will support startups’ cloud connected requirement, mobile, video and cloud computing applications and provide business agility with a flexible and scalable enterprise. Juniper Networks’ first quarter financial report showed how the company grew and met conservative goals set forth. It also found a way to make business work and rise in Android Malware and Smartphone Spyware was seen.

Meanwhile, Cisco has tried over and over to pacify, if not completely alleviate, the challenges they are hurdling at the moment.  The company offered early retirement options to US and Canadian employees to cut-back blow. They also killed Flip after nearly 2 years—a report that harnessed sweet but mostly sour reviews. Just last week, Cisco launched its first data center container, reviving its focus on the IT sector.

This is great story to follow— just like the typical teen drama show that every move is being monitored and put under scrutiny. In this case, Cisco’s pain is HP and Juniper’s victory, somehow.