瞻博網絡 (JNPR) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to the Juniper Networks Q2 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎參加瞻博網絡 2023 年第二季度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Jess Lubert. You may begin.

現在我將把會議交給主持人傑西·魯伯特 (Jess Lubert)。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 conference call. Joining me today are Rami Rahim, Chief Executive Officer; and Ken Miller, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially.

謝謝你，接線員。下午好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第二季度電話會議。今天加入我的是首席執行官拉米·拉希姆 (Rami Rahim)；和首席財務官肯·米勒。今天的電話會議包含基於我們當前預期的某些前瞻性陳述。這些陳述存在風險和不確定性，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

These risks are discussed in our most recent 10-Q, the press release furnished with our 8-K filed today, the CFO commentary posted on the Investor Relations portion of our website today and in our other SEC filings. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of today, and Juniper undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial results.

這些風險在我們最近的 10-Q、今天提交的 8-K 隨附的新聞稿、今天發佈在我們網站投資者關係部分的首席財務官評論以及我們向 SEC 提交的其他文件中進行了討論。我們的前瞻性聲明僅代表今天的情況，瞻博網絡不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。我們今天的討論將包括非公認會計準則財務業績。

Reconciliation information can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website under Financial Reports. Commentary on why we consider non-GAAP information a useful view of the company's financial results is included in today's press release. (Operator Instructions)

調節信息可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分的財務報告下找到。今天的新聞稿中包含了關於為什麼我們認為非公認會計原則信息是公司財務業績有用觀點的評論。 （操作員說明）

With that, I will now hand the call over to Rami.

現在，我將把電話轉交給拉米。

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss our Q2 2023 results. We delivered better-than-expected results during the second quarter, with total revenue of $1.430 billion, growing 13% year-over-year and exceeding the midpoint of our guidance. Product revenue grew by 15% year-over-year, and we saw year-over-year growth across all geographies.

大家下午好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議，討論我們 2023 年第二季度的業績。我們第二季度的業績好於預期，總收入為 14.3 億美元，同比增長 13%，超過了我們指導的中值。產品收入同比增長 15%，我們在所有地區都看到了同比增長。

Profitability was also strong in Q2 as our non-GAAP gross and operating margin both exceeded expectations, resulting in non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.58, towards the high end of our quarterly guidance range. Our Q2 results reflect strong execution by our teams as well as the improvements we're seeing in the availability of supply.

第二季度的盈利能力也很強勁，因為我們的非 GAAP 毛利率和營業利潤率均超出預期，導致非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.58 美元，接近我們季度指導範圍的高端。我們第二季度的業績反映了我們團隊的強大執行力以及我們在供應可用性方面看到的改進。

We remain confident in our positioning from a technology perspective and our ability to capitalize as our customers build their networks for the next decade, which we believe will leverage AI-powered software automation, an area where we have invested meaningfully over the last few years. We believe these investments, along with our go-to-market focus, will enable us to not only deliver sustained top line growth but also improved profitability even in a challenged end market environment.

我們對我們的技術定位以及我們的客戶在未來十年構建網絡的能力充滿信心，我們相信這將利用人工智能驅動的軟件自動化，這是我們在過去幾年中進行了有意義投資的領域。我們相信，這些投資以及我們對市場的關注，將使我們不僅能夠實現持續的營收增長，而且即使在充滿挑戰的終端市場環境中也能提高盈利能力。

With respect to demand, total product orders grew nearly double digits on a sequential basis. And while the year-over-year rate of decline improved relative to last quarter, it was still meaningful due to the strong sequential performance in Q2 2022. While we are continuing to see positive momentum in our Enterprise business, we experienced weaker-than-expected trends with our cloud and service provider customers, which we believe is due to the timing of projects and the digestion of prior purchases.

需求方面，產品訂單總額環比增長近兩位數。雖然同比下降率相對於上季度有所改善，但由於 2022 年第二季度的強勁連續表現，這一下降仍然有意義。雖然我們繼續看到企業業務的積極勢頭，但我們的經歷比我們的雲和服務提供商客戶的預期趨勢，我們認為這是由於項目的時間安排和先前採購的消化所致。

Despite these trends, we continue to expect the decline in orders to moderate further over the next few quarters and return to year-over-year growth potentially as soon as Q4 of this year. From a vertical perspective, I remain extremely encouraged by the momentum we're seeing in our Enterprise business, which delivered record revenue results and accounted for more than 45% of our total revenue, representing both our largest and fastest growing vertical for a third consecutive quarter.

儘管存在這些趨勢，我們仍然預計未來幾個季度訂單下降將進一步放緩，並可能最快在今年第四季度恢復同比增長。從垂直角度來看，我對我們在企業業務中看到的勢頭感到非常鼓舞，該業務創造了創紀錄的收入成果，占我們總收入的 45% 以上，連續第三年代表我們最大且增長最快的垂直領域四分之一。

Not only did our Enterprise revenue grow by nearly 40% year-over-year in the Q2 time frame, our Enterprise product orders also saw healthy year-over-year growth despite a 20% plus comp in the year ago period. Importantly, new logos grew by more than 30% year-over-year, which we view as an important forward indicator given the opportunity to expand after landing many of these accounts.

不僅我們的企業收入在第二季度同比增長了近 40%，而且我們的企業產品訂單也實現了健康的同比增長，儘管去年同期同比增長了 20% 以上。重要的是，新徽標同比增長超過 30%，我們認為這是一個重要的前瞻性指標，因為在獲得許多此類帳戶後有機會進行擴展。

Not to be overlooked, deal registration through the channel and commercial orders both grew by more than 40% year-over-year, which we think speaks to the differentiation of our products and our ability to capture share. Within the Enterprise, our campus and branch business had another record quarter in Q2, with our AI-driven Enterprise revenue growing more than 60% year-over-year.

不容忽視的是，通過渠道登記的交易量和商業訂單均同比增長超過 40%，我們認為這說明了我們產品的差異化和我們佔領市場份額的能力。在企業內部，我們的園區和分支機構業務在第二季度再創新高，人工智能驅動的企業收入同比增長超過 60%。

Customers are recognizing Juniper's clear and defensible leadership when it comes to AI-driven operations delivered via a modern micro services cloud. While the rest of the industry continues to talk, we have real AI solutions that deliver real results, including a 90% reduction in worldwide trouble tickets at a global software company, 85% pure store visits by IT at a multinational retailer and the fastest branch network rollout in the history of a national mobile operator.

在通過現代微服務雲提供人工智能驅動的運營方面，客戶正在認識到瞻博網絡清晰且可靠的領導地位。當行業中的其他人仍在談論時，我們擁有真正的人工智能解決方案，可以帶來真正的成果，包括一家全球軟件公司的全球故障單減少了 90%，一家跨國零售商的 IT 人員的純商店訪問量減少了 85%，以及最快的分支機構全國移動運營商歷史上的網絡部署。

Revenue from the Mistified segment of our business, which are products driven by Mist AI, had a record quarter, growing by nearly 100% year-over-year in the Q2 time frame, with orders growing by nearly 40% year-over-year. Strength was broad across the portfolio, with record wireless, wired and SD-WAN revenue in the quarter, as well as record full stack wins where customers purchased several of these campus and branch products together.

我們業務中的 Mistified 部分（由 Mist AI 驅動的產品）的收入創下了季度紀錄，在第二季度同比增長近 100%，訂單同比增長近 40% 。該產品組合的優勢十分廣泛，本季度的無線、有線和 SD-WAN 收入創歷史新高，並且客戶同時購買了多個園區和分支機構產品，這也創下了全堆棧的勝利。

We view momentum with these full stack wins as a positive forward-looking indicator, given our belief that for every dollar of wireless there is $2 to $3 of wired switching and additional SD-WAN opportunity. Marquee new AI-driven Enterprise customers this quarter include a Fortune 10 technology company, a Fortune 50 financial institution, an American supercenter chain, the U.K.'s largest cycling retailer and a multinational manufacturing company.

我們認為，這些全棧勝利的勢頭是一個積極的前瞻性指標，因為我們相信，每一美元的無線服務都會帶來 2 至 3 美元的有線交換和額外的 SD-WAN 機會。本季度新增的人工智能驅動型企業客戶包括一家財富 10 強科技公司、一家財富 50 強金融機構、一家美國超級購物中心連鎖店、英國最大的自行車零售商和一家跨國製造公司。

We introduced several new innovations to the Juniper Mist portfolio this past quarter, including the industry's first AI-driven, cloud-based network access assurance solution, which we believe has the ability to revolutionize a very dated NAC industry. In addition, we expanded our AIOps leadership by integrating the Marvis virtual network assistant with Chat GPT for enhanced knowledge-based queries using large language models. And we integrated with a leading Internet collaboration platform for superior video performance.

上個季度，我們在瞻博網絡 Mist 產品組合中引入了多項新創新，包括業界首款人工智能驅動、基於雲的網絡訪問保證解決方案，我們相信該解決方案能夠徹底改變過時的 NAC 行業。此外，我們還通過將 Marvis 虛擬網絡助手與 Chat GPT 集成，使用大型語言模型增強基於知識的查詢，從而擴大了我們在 AIOps 方面的領導地位。我們還與領先的互聯網協作平台集成，以實現卓越的視頻性能。

Our Enterprise data center business also performed well in Q2, with Apstra reporting a record quarter both from a revenue and an orders perspective. The Apstra pipeline continues to grow, with new logos more than doubling year-over-year for a second consecutive quarter. And we continue to see strong hardware pull-through for every dollar of software, which we view as a positive indicator for our Enterprise data center prospects.

我們的企業數據中心業務在第二季度也表現良好，Apstra 從收入和訂單角度都報告了創紀錄的季度業績。 Apstra 管道繼續增長，新徽標連續第二個季度同比增長一倍多。我們繼續看到每一美元軟件都具有強大的硬件拉動能力，我們認為這是我們企業數據中心前景的積極指標。

Our automation-driven data center revenue in the Enterprise posted a record quarter, primarily due to the increasing adoption of Apstra. New cloud-ready data center wins this quarter include a Fortune 250 financial services firm, a large U.S. restaurant chain and a large U.S. government agency. The performance of our Enterprise business shows our diversification strategy is working.

我們的企業自動化驅動數據中心收入創下了季度紀錄，這主要是由於 Apstra 的採用率不斷增加。本季度新贏得的雲就緒數據中心包括一家財富 250 強金融服務公司、一家大型美國連鎖餐廳和一家大型美國政府機構。我們企業業務的表現表明我們的多元化戰略正在發揮作用。

And given our level of portfolio differentiation balanced against a relatively modest share in the large markets where we compete, I expect us to grow both our Enterprise revenue and orders during the year, even in a more challenged macro environment. As highlighted over the last few quarters, we continue to see accounts across each of our customer verticals more closely scrutinizing budgets and project deployment time lines due to the macro uncertainties that are happening around the world.

考慮到我們的產品組合差異化水平與我們競爭的大型市場中相對適中的份額相平衡，我預計即使在更具挑戰性的宏觀環境中，我們今年的企業收入和訂單也會增長。正如過去幾個季度所強調的那樣，由於世界各地發生的宏觀不確定性，我們繼續看到每個客戶垂直領域的客戶都在更仔細地審查預算和項目部署時間表。

This is proving to be particularly true in the cloud, where we're seeing more customers digesting prior purchases and pushing projects to future periods. While these dynamics are likely to pressure our cloud business for the next few quarters, we remain optimistic regarding our longer-term growth prospects in the cloud, given our strong wide area footprint, the rapid traffic growth that continues in many of these customer environments and the opportunity to capitalize on the adoption of large language models and the build-out of AI clusters.

事實證明，這在雲中尤其如此，我們看到越來越多的客戶消化之前的購買並將項目推遲到未來的時期。儘管這些動態可能會給我們未來幾個季度的雲業務帶來壓力，但考慮到我們強大的廣域覆蓋範圍、許多客戶環境中持續的快速流量增長以及利用大型語言模型的採用和人工智能集群的構建的機會。

To this last point, we expect AI adoption to drive a meaningful uptick in traffic growth that is likely to benefit our cloud wide area footprint over time. However, we also see an attractive data center opportunity emerging where we believe the performance and power efficiency of our custom silicon, the congestion management capabilities embedded within our Junos operating system and our support for technologies such as RDMA networking will position us well to capture share, particularly with Cloud Majors accounts that are likely to bet on Ethernet as the protocol of choice to support their AI cluster investment. In fact, we've already begun to see successes in non-hyperscaler accounts.

就最後一點而言，我們預計人工智能的採用將推動流量顯著增長，隨著時間的推移，這可能有利於我們的雲廣域足跡。然而，我們也看到了一個有吸引力的數據中心機會正在出現，我們相信我們的定制芯片的性能和能效、Junos 操作系統中嵌入的擁塞管理功能以及我們對 RDMA 網絡等技術的支持將使我們能夠很好地佔領市場份額，特別是那些可能押注以太網作為支持其人工智能集群投資的首選協議的雲專業賬戶。事實上，我們已經開始看到非超大規模客戶的成功。

Our Service Provider business performed as expected in Q2, but moderated on both a sequential and year-over-year basis following the strong shipments we experienced in the Q1 time frame. We expect this business to remain lumpy going forward as the continued momentum we're seeing with respect to 400-gig deployments, particularly with some of our larger Tier 1 customers, is being offset by incremental weakness with Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers that are being impacted by the softer macro environment.

我們的服務提供商業務在第二季度的表現符合預期，但在第一季度出貨量強勁之後，環比和同比均有所放緩。我們預計這項業務未來將繼續不穩定，因為我們看到 400 兆部署的持續勢頭，特別是我們的一些較大的 1 級客戶，正在被 2 級和 3 級運營商的逐漸疲軟所抵消，這些客戶是受到宏觀環境疲軟的影響。

Despite these headwinds, we remain encouraged by the momentum we're seeing in our Cloud Metro portfolio, where our new ACX7000 platform experienced a record quarter, both from a revenue and an orders perspective, and the pipeline of opportunities remain strong. We expect this business to build through the remainder of the year and become more material to revenue in 2024 and beyond.

儘管存在這些不利因素，我們仍然對我們在 Cloud Metro 產品組合中看到的勢頭感到鼓舞，從收入和訂單的角度來看，我們的新 ACX7000 平台經歷了創紀錄的季度，並且機會渠道仍然強勁。我們預計該業務將在今年剩餘時間內不斷發展，並在 2024 年及以後對收入產生更重要的影響。

In summary, I remain confident in our strategy and optimistic regarding our long-term growth prospects. My enthusiasm is fueled by our continued Enterprise momentum and the attractive longer-term opportunities we continue to see in the cloud as well as the SP Metro opportunity.

總而言之，我對我們的戰略充滿信心，並對我們的長期增長前景持樂觀態度。我的熱情受到我們持續的企業勢頭以及我們在雲中繼續看到的有吸引力的長期機會以及 SP Metro 機會的推動。

However, given the digestion of prior purchases, and the uncertain timing of customer deployments, particularly amongst some of our larger cloud customers, we have less visibility, and our revenue results are likely to be pressured over the next few quarters. Based on these dynamics, we are reducing our full year revenue growth forecast. We remain committed to delivering improved profitability and still expect to deliver greater than 100 basis points of operating margin improvement in 2023.

然而，考慮到先前採購的消化以及客戶部署時間的不確定性，特別是在我們的一些較大的雲客戶中，我們的可見性較低，我們的收入結果可能在未來幾個季度受到壓力。基於這些動態，我們正在降低全年收入增長預測。我們仍然致力於提高盈利能力，並預計 2023 年營業利潤率將提高超過 100 個基點。

I will now turn the call over to Ken, who will discuss our quarterly financial results in more detail.

我現在將把電話轉給肯，他將更詳細地討論我們的季度財務業績。

Thank you, Rami, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start by discussing our second quarter results, then provide some color on our outlook. We ended the second quarter of 2023 with $1.430 billion in revenue, above the midpoint of our guidance and up 13% year-over-year. We delivered non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.58, towards the high end of our guidance range driven by higher-than-expected revenue and gross margin.

謝謝拉米，大家下午好。我將首先討論我們第二季度的業績，然後對我們的前景進行一些闡述。截至 2023 年第二季度，我們的收入為 14.3 億美元，高於我們指導的中值，同比增長 13%。由於收入和毛利率高於預期，我們實現了非 GAAP 攤薄每股收益 0.58 美元，接近指導範圍的高端。

From a customer solutions perspective, on a year-over-year basis, AI-driven Enterprise led the way with a revenue growth of 63%. Automated WAN solutions grew 3% and cloud-ready data center revenue was flat. Looking at our revenue by vertical, on a year-over-year basis, Enterprise increased 38%, Service Provider increased 1% and Cloud decreased 6%.

從客戶解決方案的角度來看，人工智能驅動型企業以同比 63% 的收入增長一馬當先。自動化廣域網解決方案增長了 3%，雲就緒數據中心收入持平。從垂直領域來看，我們的收入同比增長了 38%，服務提供商增長了 1%，雲下降了 6%。

Total software and related services revenue was $318 million, which was an increase of 49% year-over-year. ARR was $319 million and grew 37% year-over-year. We were pleased to see nearly 60% year-over-year growth in our SaaS and software license subscription portion of our deferred revenue. We remain confident in our outlook for total software and ARR growth.

軟件及相關服務總收入為3.18億美元，同比增長49%。 ARR 為 3.19 億美元，同比增長 37%。我們很高興看到我們的 SaaS 和軟件許可證訂閱部分的遞延收入同比增長了近 60%。我們對軟件總量和 ARR 增長的前景仍然充滿信心。

Total security revenue was $168 million, up 6% year-over-year due to the timing of shipments related to improved supply. In reviewing our top 10 customers for the quarter, 6 were Cloud, 3 were Service Provider and 1 was in Enterprise. Our top 10 customers accounted for 27% of our total revenue as compared to 34% in the second quarter of 2022.

由於與供應改善相關的發貨時間安排，安全總收入為 1.68 億美元，同比增長 6%。在回顧本季度的十大客戶時，6 個是雲客戶，3 個是服務提供商，1 個是企業客戶。我們的十大客戶占我們總收入的 27%，而 2022 年第二季度為 34%。

Non-GAAP gross margin was 58.3%, which was above the midpoint of the guidance, primarily driven by favorable software revenue mix and higher revenue volume, partially offset by higher inventory-related expenses. Non-GAAP operating expenses increased 10% year-over-year, primarily due to headcount-related costs, but were flat sequentially.

非 GAAP 毛利率為 58.3%，高於指導值的中點，主要是由於有利的軟件收入組合和較高的收入量，部分被較高的庫存相關費用所抵消。非 GAAP 運營費用同比增長 10%，主要是由於與員工人數相關的成本，但與上一季度持平。

Non-GAAP operating margin was 16.9% for the quarter, which was above our expectations, driven by higher revenue and better-than-expected gross margin. Cash flows from operations were $343 million, which was benefited by approximately $200 million in deferred federal tax payments that will be paid later in the year. We paid $70 million in dividends, reflecting our quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share. We also repurchased $120 million worth of shares in the quarter.

本季度非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 16.9%，高於我們的預期，這得益於更高的收入和好於預期的毛利率。運營現金流為 3.43 億美元，受益於將於今年晚些時候支付的約 2 億美元的遞延聯邦稅款。我們支付了 7000 萬美元的股息，相當於每股 0.22 美元的季度股息。本季度我們還回購了價值 1.2 億美元的股票。

We exited the second quarter of 2023 with total cash, cash equivalents and investments of $1.3 billion. Despite the challenging macro environment, our results for Q2 were very strong, and I'm pleased with our team's dedication and commitment.

2023 年第二季度結束時，我們的現金、現金等價物和投資總額為 13 億美元。儘管宏觀環境充滿挑戰，但我們第二季度的業績非常強勁，我對我們團隊的奉獻和承諾感到滿意。

Now I would like to provide some color on our guidance, which you can find detailed in the CFO commentary available on our Investor Relations website. For the third quarter, we expect to see continued weakness in orders, particularly with our Cloud and, to a lesser extent, our Service Provider customers. We believe the softness in orders is largely attributable to customer digestion of previously placed orders and certain projects being pushed to future periods.

現在我想對我們的指導提供一些說明，您可以在我們的投資者關係網站上的首席財務官評論中找到詳細信息。對於第三季度，我們預計訂單將持續疲軟，特別是我們的雲訂單，以及較小程度上的服務提供商客戶訂單。我們認為訂單疲軟主要是由於客戶消化了之前的訂單以及某些項目被推遲到未來時期。

We expect the macro environment to remain challenged, which may continue to impact customer spending. These factors are negatively impacting our revenue expectations. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to modestly increase sequentially in the third quarter of 2023. This forecast assumes supply chain-related costs improved, but remain elevated relative to prepandemic levels. We will continue to manage non-GAAP operating expenses prudently and expect a sequential decline in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter of 2023.

我們預計宏觀環境仍將面臨挑戰，這可能會繼續影響客戶支出。這些因素對我們的收入預期產生負面影響。非 GAAP 毛利率預計將在 2023 年第三季度小幅增長。該預測假設供應鏈相關成本有所改善，但相對於大流行前的水平仍處於較高水平。我們將繼續審慎管理非 GAAP 運營費用，預計第三季度運營費用將較 2023 年第二季度環比下降。

Turning to our expectations for the rest of 2023. As mentioned previously, we experienced weaker-than-expected order activity in the second quarter, particularly with our Cloud and, to a lesser extent, our Service Provider customers. We expect this weakness to continue into the second half of the year. As such, we are amending our full year revenue guidance to approximately 5% to 6% growth.

談到我們對 2023 年剩餘時間的預期。如前所述，我們在第二季度的訂單活動弱於預期，特別是我們的雲以及服務提供商客戶（較小程度上）。我們預計這種疲軟趨勢將持續到今年下半年。因此，我們將全年收入指引修改為約 5% 至 6% 的增長。

However, we are raising our non-GAAP gross margin guidance from approximately 58% to greater than 58% on a full year basis, primarily driven by anticipated improvements in supply chain costs. Additionally, we still expect to deliver non-GAAP operating margin expansion of greater than 100 basis points as the benefit from higher non-GAAP gross margin and prudent non-GAAP operating expense management should offset the impact of lower revenue. Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to grow double digits in 2023.

然而，我們將全年非 GAAP 毛利率指引從大約 58% 提高到 58% 以上，這主要是由於供應鏈成本的預期改善。此外，我們仍預計非 GAAP 營業利潤率將增長超過 100 個基點，因為較高的非 GAAP 毛利率和審慎的非 GAAP 營業費用管理帶來的好處應能抵消收入下降的影響。預計 2023 年非 GAAP 每股收益將實現兩位數增長。

Our long-term financial objectives have not changed. We plan to deliver sustainable revenue growth, improved operating margin and earnings expansion over time. Finally, I am pleased to announce we have declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.22 per share to be paid this quarter to stockholders of record.

我們的長期財務目標沒有改變。我們計劃隨著時間的推移實現可持續的收入增長、提高營業利潤率和盈利擴張。最後，我很高興地宣布，我們已宣布本季度向記錄在案的股東支付每股 0.22 美元的季度現金股息。

In closing, I would like to thank the Juniper team for their continued dedication and commitment to Juniper's success, especially in this dynamic environment. Now I'd like to open the call for questions.

最後，我要感謝瞻博網絡團隊對瞻博網絡成功的持續奉獻和承諾，尤其是在這個充滿活力的環境中。現在我想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Simon Leopold with Raymond James.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自西蒙·利奧波德和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

I wanted to discuss the weakness you called out on the Cloud orders. I'm wondering if you see this as an issue actually stemming from AI projects pulling budget from the areas where Juniper has its use cases. And if so, how do you think about really the timing and extent of the eventual knock-on effect, which you mentioned? So I understand AI could be a longer-term tailwind. I'm looking for a little bit more substance on that comment.

我想討論一下您指出的雲訂單的弱點。我想知道您是否認為這是一個實際上源於人工智能項目從瞻博網絡擁有其用例的領域提取預算的問題。如果是這樣，您如何看待您提到的最終連鎖反應的時間和程度？所以我知道人工智能可能是一個長期的推動力。我正在尋找有關該評論的更多實質內容。

Yes. Thanks for the question, Simon. I think the biggest issue right now that we're facing in the Cloud provider segment is the period of digestion. It's not specific to any one customer. It's broad-based. It's not even just hyperscalers, it includes the Cloud Majors segment as well.

是的。謝謝你的提問，西蒙。我認為目前云提供商領域面臨的最大問題是消化期。它不特定於任何一位客戶。它的基礎廣泛。它甚至不僅僅是超大規模企業，還包括雲專業領域。

To the question around AI, and it being a priority, I definitely see it. There is no doubt that our Cloud customers are focusing pretty intensely on artificial intelligence, making sure that they're equipped to deal with the additional services they're going to be offering and the demand that's going to place on their network.

對於圍繞人工智能的問題，它是一個優先事項，我確實看到了這一點。毫無疑問，我們的雲客戶非常關注人工智能，確保他們有能力處理將要提供的附加服務以及將對其網絡提出的需求。

While in the short term that might have a bit of a negative impact, I think, to your point, and long term, it's actually quite attractive for us for 2 reasons. To the extent that AI is a new killer app that's going to be offered by cloud providers to their customers, it's going to result in an increase of traffic across the board in areas -- in the wide area where we have significant footprint and, of course, in the data center.

雖然在短期內這可能會產生一些負面影響，但我認為，就您的觀點而言，從長遠來看，它實際上對我們相當有吸引力，原因有兩個。從某種程度上來說，人工智能是一種新的殺手級應用程序，將由雲提供商向其客戶提供，這將導致各個領域的流量全面增加——在我們擁有大量足蹟的廣闊領域，當然是在數據中心。

And I do think, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, that it could offer a nice new opportunity for us to participate in, in the data center, with AI clusters being built increasingly over time with Ethernet as an alternative to what is today, the technology of choice, which is InfiniBand. The timing to your question is it's difficult to call right now, but it's really in several quarters.

我確實認為，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，它可以為我們參與數據中心提供一個很好的新機會，隨著時間的推移，人工智能集群越來越多地被構建，以太網作為今天的替代方案，選擇的技術是 InfiniBand。你提出問題的時機是現在很難打電話，但實際上是在幾個季度之後。

The next question is from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Samik Chatterjee。

I guess I wanted to get a sense, you're trimming your revenue guide for the full year today by about $150 million or so. I mean the incremental weakness that you're mentioning related to the last quarter is Service Provider, but if you can break down sort of how much of that revision on the guide is really coming from Cloud versus Service Providers.

我想我想了解一下，你們今天將全年收入指南削減了約 1.5 億美元左右。我的意思是，您提到的與上個季度相關的增量弱點是服務提供商，但如果您可以細分一下，指南中的修訂有多少真正來自云與服務提供商。

And maybe just in terms of thinking about sort of the reduction here, I think investors are going to question sort of the discussion around elevated backlog that most companies have discussed for a while, just given that even with the elevated backlog, the visibility into revenue remains pretty limited. So how are you guys thinking about sort of backlog in terms of what that backlog implies going forward, particularly given that some of the macro trends are still influencing revenue on a more real-time basis?

也許只是考慮到這裡的減少，我認為投資者會質疑大多數公司已經討論了一段時間的關於積壓增加的討論，只是考慮到即使積壓增加，收入的可見性仍然相當有限。那麼，你們如何看待積壓的情況以及積壓對未來意味著什麼，特別是考慮到一些宏觀趨勢仍在更實時地影響收入？

Sure. Thanks for the question. Yes. So for the guidance, the reduction in revenue expectation for the year is largely Cloud, right? I would say, to a lesser degree, Service Provider, but the vast majority of that reduction would be attributable directly to our Cloud business. On a year-to-date basis, our Cloud business is down 10%.

當然。謝謝你的提問。是的。因此，就指導而言，今年收入預期的減少主要是雲計算，對吧？我想說，在較小程度上，服務提供商，但絕大多數的減少將直接歸因於我們的雲業務。今年迄今，我們的雲業務下降了 10%。

I think it's likely that it ends the year down double digits. And this is really due to the weakness we saw in orders late in Q2 as well as what we expect to see for the rest of the year. So the vast majority of that is Cloud. I believe our Service Provider business will stay within kind of our guidance range of plus or minus 2%. So that's going to be largely intact with our long-term model. And Enterprise is clearly way ahead of our long-term model, and I expect it to remain way ahead as we exit the year. So the revenue decline is really mostly a Cloud phenomenon.

我認為今年結束時它很可能會下降兩位數。這實際上是由於我們在第二季度末看到的訂單疲軟以及我們預計今年剩餘時間的訂單疲軟所致。所以其中絕大多數是雲。我相信我們的服務提供商業務將保持在我們正負 2% 的指導範圍內。因此，這對於我們的長期模型來說基本上是完整的。企業版顯然遠遠領先於我們的長期模型，我預計在今年結束時它仍將保持領先地位。因此，收入下降實際上主要是雲現象。

From a backlog perspective, clearly, backlog is coming down as we expect it to this year. I'll tell you, it came down a little bit more than we expected, given that the order weakness that we called out in Q2. So backlog is coming down. However, it still remains about 3x what we would normally expect in kind of a pre-pandemic historical level. And I expect to exit the year, I still expect to remain elevated as we exit the year at approximately 2x kind of normal historical level. So it's coming down quickly, but it still remains quite elevated.

從積壓的角度來看，顯然，今年的積壓正在下降，正如我們預期的那樣。我告訴你，考慮到我們在第二季度指出的訂單疲軟，它的下降幅度比我們預期的要多一些。所以積壓正在減少。然而，它仍然是我們通常預期的大流行前歷史水平的三倍左右。我預計今年結束時，我仍然預計，當我們結束今年時，價格將保持在正常歷史水平的大約兩倍的水平上。所以它正在迅速下降，但仍然很高。

It is going to put some pressure on 2024 revenue growth. The backlog is a tailwind in 2023. It will be a headwind to 2024 as the backlog -- we will not have as much elevated backlog entering next year as we did this year. It's going to require us to have a recovery in bookings and orders. The good news is I expect that we will have a recovery in orders. I expect next year to be a strong bookings year for all of our verticals as we kind of go through this backlog digestion period and react to the current lead time.

這將對2024年的收入增長帶來一些壓力。積壓是 2023 年的順風車。積壓將是 2024 年的逆風——明年的積壓量不會像今年那麼多。這將要求我們恢復預訂和訂單。好消息是我預計我們的訂單將會恢復。我預計明年對於我們所有垂直行業來說都是強勁的預訂年，因為我們會經歷積壓消化期並對當前的交貨時間做出反應。

So this year is obviously putting a lot of pressure on bookings. It's resulting in a declining backlog. I think next year would be a little more normal while bookings will drive revenue growth.

所以今年顯然給預訂帶來了很大的壓力。這導致了積壓的減少。我認為明年會更加正常，而預訂將推動收入增長。

Up next, we have Tim Long with Barclays.

接下來是巴克萊銀行的蒂姆·朗。

Yes, I wanted to touch on the Enterprise business. Obviously, good numbers. There are still a lot of new customers. Could you talk a little bit about kind of where we're at with kind of win rates, deal sizes, kind of cross-selling? If you just give us a little more color on what's driving that.

是的，我想談談企業業務。顯然，數字不錯。還有很多新客戶。您能談談我們在贏率、交易規模和交叉銷售方面的情況嗎？如果您能告訴我們更多關於推動這一趨勢的因素。

And related, if you can just touch on -- we're seeing macro impact a lot at other places. It looks like it's starting or going to start hit that Enterprise networking area soon. How do you view the success you've had and the market share gains in a backdrop where we might be seeing more pressure overall in the industry?

與此相關的是，如果您能談談的話，我們在其他地方看到了很多宏觀影響。看起來它很快就會開始或即將開始進入企業網絡領域。在我們可能看到行業整體壓力更大的背景下，您如何看待您所取得的成功和市場份額的增長？

Okay. Thanks for the question, Tim. Yes. So I'm obviously very pleased with the performance of our Enterprise business. And really, this is in the face of macro-related headwinds. Enterprise is now our largest, our fastest-growing segment in Q2 with over 45% of total revenue. The level of differentiation that we have in our Enterprise portfolio has never been stronger.

好的。謝謝你的提問，蒂姆。是的。所以我顯然對我們企業業務的表現非常滿意。事實上，這是面對宏觀相關的不利因素。企業現在是我們第二季度最大、增長最快的細分市場，佔總收入的 45% 以上。我們的企業產品組合的差異化水平從未如此強大。

You see it in the numbers. Our AI-driven Enterprise business grew at over 60%. Mistified revenue grew at over -- at approximately 100% year-over-year. And we also saw some really encouraging signs with Apstra in the data center, specifically again for the Enterprise. So the question around -- really, it's around durability: What happens if there were going to be sort of signs of weakness in the market?

你可以從數字中看到這一點。我們的人工智能驅動型企業業務增長了 60% 以上。迷霧收入同比增長超過 100%。我們還在數據中心看到了 Apstra 的一些令人鼓舞的跡象，尤其是針對企業。所以問題是——實際上，這是關於耐久性的：如果市場出現某種疲軟的跡象，會發生什麼？

I'd just say that the Enterprise market, if it was -- it's -- there are headwinds in the market today. Absent those headwinds, we'd actually be doing even better. We'd be posting even better results than we have right now. And as just a point of consideration, take a look at how our Enterprise business performed even during the early days of the pandemic, where peers in the industry were not seeing growth, we were seeing growth, and that was through new logos, share taking, which is really happening right now.

我只想說，企業市場，如果是的話——確實是——今天的市場存在逆風。如果沒有這些逆風，我們實際上會做得更好。我們會發布比現在更好的結果。作為一個考慮點，看看我們的企業業務在大流行初期的表現如何，行業內的同行沒有看到增長，而我們看到了增長，這是通過新的標識、份額收購，現在確實正在發生。

I'm very encouraged with the forward-looking metrics, things like 30% growth in new logos, deal registrations up 40%. This is really an indication of how much opportunity our channel partners are bringing to Juniper. Commercial business up at over 40%. This is -- these are signs, I believe, of success to come in the Enterprise. So for that reason, I'm encouraged by the business traction thus far, revenue growth and order growth this year. And it's, I think, fairly easy to call revenue growth for next year in the Enterprise.

我對前瞻性指標感到非常鼓舞，比如新徽標增長 30%，交易註冊量增長 40%。這確實表明我們的渠道合作夥伴為瞻博網絡帶來了多少機會。商業業務增長超過40%。我相信，這些都是企業成功的標誌。因此，出於這個原因，我對迄今為止的業務牽引力、今年的收入增長和訂單增長感到鼓舞。我認為，很容易稱之為企業明年的收入增長。

The next question is from Alex Henderson with Needham.

下一個問題是 Alex Henderson 和 Needham 提出的。

Great. Couple of just mechanics issues. Can you talk a little bit about linearity in the quarter, pricing in the quarter, whether the pushouts were both in Cloud and in the Service Provider? And when you talk about the scale of the '24 headwinds, can you give us some sense of what the scale is on that? Is it a 2% headwind, 4%, 6%, more? And what's the split there between Enterprise, Service Provider and Cloud?

偉大的。幾個只是機械問題。您能否談談本季度的線性、本季度的定價以及是否同時在雲和服務提供商中推出？當您談論 24 年逆風的規模時，您能給我們一些大概的了解嗎？是 2%、4%、6% 還是更多？企業、服務提供商和雲之間有何區別？

Maybe I'll start with the 2024 view. And then, Ken, I'll let you comment a little bit more about linearity and pricing. And Alex, I appreciate the question. So it's a little too early to provide guidance on 2024 all up, especially given some of the digestion that we're seeing in the Cloud and, to a lesser extent, in the SP segment.

也許我會從 2024 年的觀點開始。然後，Ken，我會讓您對線性和定價進行更多評論。亞歷克斯，我很欣賞這個問題。因此，現在就 2024 年提供全面指導還為時過早，特別是考慮到我們在雲領域以及較小程度上在 SP 領域看到的一些消化。

However, I do think it is possible for us to grow revenue in 2024, and I'll just walk you through just some of the puts and takes to that. Backlog draw, as Ken just mentioned, in 2023, creates a pretty meaningful revenue headwind for us in 2024. So if you think about it, orders would need to accelerate from here to overcome the backlog-related headwind that this year is presenting to next year.

不過，我確實認為我們有可能在 2024 年實現收入增長，我將向您介紹一些實現這一目標的看跌期權和拿取期權。正如 Ken 剛才提到的，2023 年的積壓訂單為我們 2024 年帶來了相當大的收入逆風。因此，如果你仔細想想，訂單將需要從這裡開始加速，以克服今年將給明年帶來的與積壓相關的逆風年。

Now the good news is we do expect orders to grow and, in fact, to accelerate for the full year in '24. And in fact, we see the order growth to happen across all customer segments, in Cloud, in SP and in Enterprise. In the Enterprise, as I just mentioned, which is the bulk of our business, it continues to do well today, both from an orders and revenue standpoint, it's very easy to call revenue growth for Enterprise next year.

現在的好消息是，我們確實預計訂單將增長，事實上，24 年全年訂單將加速增長。事實上，我們看到所有客戶群體、雲、SP 和企業的訂單都在增長。正如我剛才提到的，企業業務是我們的主要業務，它今天繼續表現良好，無論是從訂單還是收入的角度來看，很容易稱之為明年企業業務的收入增長。

Cloud and SP, I'd just say it's a little bit too early for us to call right now. Orders will accelerate. We don't know if they're going to accelerate fast enough to overcome the backlog-related headwinds for next year. So the summary, I would say is, so while 2024 full year revenue growth is possible, it really is going to depend on the timing of order recovery for Cloud and SP. And I would say -- I'm sure Ken would say this if I don't, we're committed to both margin and EPS growth next year, in 2024, irrespective of what Cloud and SP does.

Cloud 和 SP，我只想說現在對我們來說還為時過早。訂單將加速。我們不知道他們是否會加速足夠快來克服明年積壓相關的阻力。因此，我想說的是，儘管 2024 年全年收入增長是可能的，但這實際上取決於雲和 SP 的訂單恢復時間。我想說的是，如果我不這樣做，我確信 Ken 會這麼說，我們致力於明年（2024 年）利潤率和每股收益的增長，無論 Cloud 和 SP 做什麼。

Yes. From a linearity perspective, I'm actually going to answer a couple of things. First, for the Q2 orders, the weakness in orders really showed up late in the quarter. So that was something that happened late in the quarter. And our current visibility is that the second half of the year is also going to be down as compared to our previous expectations in the Cloud and, to a lesser degree, Service Providers. So it really did kind of show up late in the quarter.

是的。從線性的角度來看，我實際上要回答幾個問題。首先，從第二季度的訂單來看，訂單的疲軟在本季度末確實顯現出來。這就是本季度末發生的事情。我們目前的預期是，與我們之前對雲以及服務提供商的預期相比，今年下半年的業績也將下降。所以它確實在本季度末出現了。

I do want to touch on linearity for next year as well. I do believe it's going to be more of a back-end loaded year, a little bit different than, say, this year. So the first half of next year is going to be, I would say, particularly challenged from a growth opportunity perspective. And full year growth is too early to call. It is possible, but there's a lot of moving parts there. But I would set up a back-end loaded year, given the current situation we see and the weakness we see now is likely to bleed into the first half of next year.

我確實也想談談明年的線性度。我確實相信這將是後端負載較多的一年，與今年有些不同。因此，我想說，從增長機會的角度來看，明年上半年將面臨特別的挑戰。判斷全年增長還為時過早。這是可能的，但那裡有很多移動部件。但考慮到我們目前看到的情況以及我們現在看到的疲軟可能會持續到明年上半年，我會設定一個後端負載的一年。

The other question you asked a little bit on, Alex, was pricing. We really didn't notice a material change in pricing activity. It's always been a very competitive pricing environment. It's kind of deal-to-deal, hand-to-hand combat in many ways. So really nothing to call out from a more holistic point of view on the pricing side.

亞歷克斯，你問的另一個問題是定價。我們確實沒有註意到定價活動發生重大變化。這一直是一個非常有競爭力的定價環境。從很多方面來說，這都是一場交易對交易、肉搏戰。因此，從定價方面更全面的角度來看，確實沒有什麼值得指出的。

The next question is from David Vogt with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的大衛·沃格特。

Maybe, Rami, can I just follow up on the Cloud digestion sort of train of thought here? And how are you thinking about where Juniper kind of fits in or slots in as either the hyperscalers or the major cloud providers really start to accelerate maybe CapEx next year in terms of where you slot in maybe from a timing perspective?

也許，拉米，我可以在這裡跟進一下云消化的思路嗎？您如何看待瞻博網絡的定位或定位，因為超大規模提供商或主要雲提供商明年可能會真正開始加速資本支出，從時間角度來看，您定位在哪裡？

And along those lines, are you seeing some of the order digestion or maybe pushouts being driven by maybe a reallocation of CapEx from Cloud customers, whether it's the hyperscalers or maybe cloud providers? Are they spending more on GPU-enabled servers and compute, and maybe that's putting pressure on other parts of network spend? And would just kind of get some thoughts and color on what you're hearing from your customers at this point.

沿著這些思路，您是否看到一些訂單消化或推出可能是由雲客戶的資本支出重新分配驅動的，無論是超大規模企業還是雲提供商？他們是否在支持 GPU 的服務器和計算上花費更多，這可能會給網絡支出的其他部分帶來壓力？我只想了解一下您此時從客戶那裡聽到的一些想法和看法。

Yes, I appreciate the question, David. I think the biggest factor right now that's impacting our Cloud business is digestion. It's just unprecedented order growth over the last couple of years, now being followed by a period where they need to work through the products that they've ordered, they need to receive them.

是的，我很欣賞這個問題，大衛。我認為目前影響我們雲業務的最大因素是消化。在過去的幾年裡，訂單出現了前所未有的增長，現在緊隨其後的是他們需要處理他們訂購的產品、他們需要接收這些產品的時期。

They need to deploy them, and then revenue will catch up. Or orders will recover and revenue will catch up afterwards. As I mentioned earlier, there definitely is a lot of attention and maybe even some diversion of capital investments to AI clusters, GPUs, that sort of thing. And yes, I think that can have a short-term negative impact, not the biggest impact.

他們需要部署它們，然後收入就會趕上。或者訂單會恢復，收入會隨後趕上。正如我之前提到的，肯定有很多關注，甚至可能有一些資本投資轉移到人工智能集群、GPU 之類的事情上。是的，我認為這可能會產生短期負面影響，而不是最大的影響。

Again, it's not as big, I would say, nor as near as big as -- that's just of digestion. But the long-term impact of that AI cluster investment, in my view, is a net positive. And this is true for areas of the Cloud provider network where we have significant market share in hyperscale WAN, for example, but it also presents opportunities for Juniper to participate in AI cluster Ethernet networking, which I believe becomes more dominant in time.

再說一次，我想說，它沒有那麼大，也沒有那麼大——這只是消化的作用。但在我看來，人工智能集群投資的長期影響是積極的。對於雲提供商網絡領域來說確實如此，例如，我們在超大規模廣域網中擁有巨大的市場份額，但這也為瞻博網絡提供了參與人工智能集群以太網網絡的機會，我相信隨著時間的推移，該領域將變得更加占主導地位。

Next, we have Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas.

接下來是法國巴黎銀行的卡爾·阿克曼。

I was hoping to tie in -- or I have a follow-up question with regard to some of the comments you answered -- or discussed earlier. One is I understand that pricing has not really changed yet. At the same time, you indicated that orders were toward the end of the quarter. So I guess are Service Provider and Cloud customers pushing back on price towards the end of the quarter? Is that some of the reason for your cautiousness? And then that's a clarification. I have a short question as well.

我希望加入——或者我對你之前回答或討論的一些評論有一個後續問題。一是我知道定價還沒有真正改變。同時，你們表示訂單將在本季度末進行。所以我猜服務提供商和雲客戶是否會在本季度末推遲價格？這是您謹慎的部分原因嗎？然後這是一個澄清。我也有一個簡短的問題。

Yes. So just to clarify, I was mentioning that at the end of the quarter, orders, the weakness showed up late in the quarter. So actually, our orders were weaker at the end of the quarter than we would have expected as we started the quarter. So linearity was not back-end loaded. In fact, it didn't come in as strong as we thought it would over the last few weeks of the quarter from a bookings perspective.

是的。因此，為了澄清一下，我提到在季度末，訂單的疲軟現像在季度末顯現出來。因此，實際上，我們在本季度末的訂單量比我們在本季度初的預期要弱。所以線性度不是後端加載的。事實上，從預訂的角度來看，本季度最後幾週的表現並沒有我們想像的那麼強勁。

I see. And I was hoping if you can just maybe address why hardware maintenance and professional services had moderated the last 2 quarters despite the improving strength in Enterprise? I suppose should we expect that to flip going forward?

我懂了。我希望您能否解決為什麼儘管企業實力不斷增強，硬件維護和專業服務在過去兩個季度卻有所放緩？我想我們應該期待這種情況會發生逆轉嗎？

Yes. So our hardware and maintenance business really is an installed base business. So although current period in revenue and recent period revenue obviously matters, it really is about the installed base. And we have seen significant strength in that business over the last several years, where it's been growing pretty routinely, maybe not as much as product when product is growing well, but it grows -- it still grows even when products has a down period.

是的。因此，我們的硬件和維護業務確實是一個安裝基礎業務。因此，儘管當前時期的收入和近期收入顯然很重要，但它實際上與安裝基礎有關。在過去的幾年裡，我們看到了該業務的顯著優勢，它的增長非常規律，當產品增長良好時，它可能不如產品增長得那麼快，但它在增長——即使產品處於低迷期，它仍然在增長。

So it's a pretty stable business that's growing in line with our expectations, to be honest with you. There is a shift happening as well to more software. So when you isolate just hardware maintenance and support, you are kind of underestimating the true power of our services business, which is on the software side, which shows up in a different line item.

所以說實話，這是一項相當穩定的業務，其增長符合我們的預期。更多軟件也正在發生轉變。因此，當您僅隔離硬件維護和支持時，您有點低估了我們服務業務的真正實力，該業務位於軟件方面，顯示在不同的行項目中。

Up next is George Notter with Jefferies.

接下來是喬治·諾特和杰弗里斯。

If I go back to last quarter, if I remember correctly, you guys were also pointing to Cloud customers going through a period of inventory digestion. And I guess it seems like it really intensified over the last 3 months. I guess my question for you is, is that the right observation? And do you get any commentary from them about why that's intensified? And then also, I just want to make sure this isn't a market share issue. Any sense for market share or your participation share-wise in some of these accounts?

如果我回到上個季度，如果我沒記錯的話，你們也指出雲客戶正在經歷一段庫存消化期。我想在過去三個月裡這種情況似乎確實加劇了。我想我對你的問題是，這是正確的觀察嗎？您是否從他們那裡得到了關於這種情況為何加劇的任何評論？另外，我只是想確保這不是市場份額問題。對於其中一些賬戶的市場份額或您的參與份額有什麼意義嗎？

Yes. So to answer the second part of the question first, no, I do not believe this is a market share issue. Just keep in mind that in hyperscale, our dominant footprint is in the wide area. So it is very much around sort of capital intensity, specifically for wide area investment, and so on.

是的。因此，首先回答問題的第二部分，不，我不認為這是市場份額問題。請記住，在超大規模中，我們的主要足跡是在廣闊的區域。因此，這很大程度上取決於資本密集度，特別是大範圍投資等。

The first part of your question, the answer is yes. I mean it did intensify. We obviously had some expectation of how long the period of digestion would take, how long it would take to deploy new projects and has it elongated. Having said that, it's important to say that projects that we have been working on, and competing for, remain intact. We have not seen Cloud providers cancel projects.

你問題的第一部分，答案是肯定的。我的意思是它確實加劇了。我們顯然對消化期需要多長時間、部署新項目需要多長時間以及是否延長有預期。話雖如此，重要的是要說我們一直在努力和競爭的項目仍然完好無損。我們還沒有看到雲提供商取消項目。

400-gig deployments in the wide area, for example, remain incredibly important, especially with cloud providers having to invest in new AI capabilities. Ultimately, that's going to generate more demand, traffic growth on their network across every use case. And the projects that were in place might have moved out in time, but they have not been eliminated. And it continues to be an intense area of focus for us at Juniper.

例如，大範圍的 400 兆部署仍然非常重要，特別是在雲提供商必須投資新的人工智能功能的情況下。最終，這將在每個用例的網絡上產生更多的需求和流量增長。而已經到位的項目或許及時搬走了，但並沒有被淘汰。它仍然是我們瞻博網絡重點關注的領域。

Got it. And then just a quick follow-on. I know you guys are working on new silicon for the PTX. I'm just curious about where that is. That's obviously, I think, an important new product delivery for Cloud customers. Just wondering where that is.

知道了。然後是快速跟進。我知道你們正在為 PTX 開發新的芯片。我只是好奇那是哪裡。我認為，這顯然對雲客戶來說是一個重要的新產品交付。只是想知道那是哪裡。

Yes. So I mean it's looking great, honestly. I mean the level of innovation and just the sophistication of the silicon technology that we've developed, and the latest Express silicon looks just absolutely remarkable. Customers that have had an early view of what we've developed are incredibly excited about it. I believe from a market fit standpoint, it absolutely is addressing some of these big cloud provider use cases that I just discussed, and we're getting close. So stay tuned.

是的。所以我的意思是，老實說，它看起來很棒。我指的是我們開發的矽技術的創新水平和復雜程度，而最新的 Express 矽看起來絕對是非凡的。早期了解我們開發的產品的客戶對此感到非常興奮。我相信，從市場契合的角度來看，它絕對正在解決我剛才討論的一些大型雲提供商用例，而且我們正在接近這一點。所以請繼續關注。

Next question is from Mike Ng with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的 Mike Ng。

I just had some follow-ups to your comments on Samik's question on backlog. So you started the year with over $2 billion in the backlog. Are you still expecting to exit the year with backlog levels around $500 million to $1 billion? Any comments on where those net backlog reduction sat in 2023 by customer vertical? And then I just have a quick follow-up.

我剛剛對您對 Samik 關於積壓問題的評論進行了一些跟進。因此，今年年初，您的積壓訂單已超過 20 億美元。您是否仍預計今年結束時積壓金額約為 5 億至 10 億美元？對於 2023 年客戶垂直領域的淨積壓減少情況有何評論？然後我就進行快速跟進。

Yes. So we still expect to exit the year on an elevated level, about 2x normal. And we define normal historically as we were $400 million plus or minus a bit for quite a period of time. So I'm talking about maybe the middle to the high end of that $500 million to $1 billion range that you talked about. $800 million, plus or minus $100 million or $200 million, would be where I'd expect our backlog to exit for the end of the year. So still elevated.

是的。因此，我們仍預計今年將以較高水平退出，約為正常水平的兩倍。從歷史上看，我們對正常的定義是，在相當長的一段時間內，我們的收入上下浮動了 4 億美元。所以我說的可能是您談到的 5 億至 10 億美元範圍的中高端。我預計年底我們的積壓訂單將達到 8 億美元，加上或減去 1 億美元或 2 億美元。所以還是高了。

To date, it's been coming down fairly proportionately across all verticals. We entered the year with a pretty balanced backlog as compared to what our revenue is. That said, I think we'll exit the year with a little bit more in the Enterprise side, and we'll probably burn through the Cloud backlog at a little faster rate than the other verticals, given some of the weakness that we've mentioned on the new orders.

迄今為止，所有垂直領域的下降幅度都相當大。與我們的收入相比，今年我們的積壓訂單相當平衡。也就是說，我認為今年結束時我們將在企業方面做更多的工作，考慮到我們已經存在的一些弱點，我們可能會以比其他垂直領域更快的速度消除雲積壓。新訂單中提到。

Great. That's really helpful. And just a housekeeping question. Orders being up nearly double digits sequentially, my model kind of suggests that implies down mid-20s on a year-over-year basis. Is that kind of in the ballpark?

偉大的。這真的很有幫助。只是一個家政問題。訂單連續增長近兩位數，我的模型表明這意味著同比下降 20 多歲。這是球場上的那種嗎？

Yes, we did see a modest improvement from last quarter on a year-over-year basis, and we expect modest -- we expect improvement going forward. And we could return to growth as soon as Q4. So yes, we are -- we did see some modest improvement. So that's in line, I think, with kind of where you are.

是的，我們確實看到與上季度相比略有改善，而且我們預計會有所改善——我們預計未來會有所改善。我們最早可能在第四季度恢復增長。所以，是的，我們確實看到了一些適度的改進。所以我認為這與你現在的處境是一致的。

The next question is from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的梅塔·馬歇爾。

Great. I noted that you guys were saying that there was some elongation with maybe Tier 2 and Tier 3 Service Providers and Cloud. Those have been areas where you would had a lot of new customer wins in the last year. And so I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of, is this some of the new wins that you had over the last year just taking longer to implement? Or is it kind of broader across all of the customers within that area? And then the second question is just if you could give a sense of kind of what the overhang on gross margins is still from kind of expedite fees or kind of supply chain costs?

偉大的。我注意到你們說第二級和第三級服務提供商和雲可能存在一些延伸。去年，這些領域是您贏得大量新客戶的領域。所以我想我只是想了解一下，這是你們去年取得的一些新成果只是需要更長的時間來實施嗎？還是該領域的所有客戶都更廣泛？第二個問題是，您是否可以了解毛利率的懸殊仍然來自某種加急費用或某種供應鏈成本？

Okay. Thanks, Meta. So the period of elongation has been mostly a Cloud, to a lesser extent, in SP. You are right, we have won, we've secured new projects over the last year or 2 that we have mentioned on these earnings calls. And even there, where we have started deployments, some of the deployments have just moved out in time.

好的。謝謝，梅塔。因此，伸長的時期大部分是雲，在較小程度上是在 SP 中。你是對的，我們贏了，我們在過去一兩年裡獲得了新項目，這些項目是我們在這些收益電話會議上提到的。即使在那裡，我們已經開始部署，一些部署也剛剛及時移出。

So it applies to areas where we have existing footprint and net new wins where we've started to see some benefit, but maybe not as much benefit as we would have otherwise enjoyed had this elongation not taken place. And again, it's mostly a Cloud phenomenon to a lesser extent, in the SP. And then the second part of the question, I'll leave it to Ken on the gross margin.

因此，它適用於我們擁有現有足跡和淨新勝利的領域，我們已經開始看到一些好處，但如果沒有發生這種延伸，我們可能不會享受到那麼多的好處。再說一次，在 SP 中，這主要是一種雲現象，但程度較小。然後問題的第二部分，我將把毛利率問題留給 Ken。

Yes. On the gross margin side, we are starting to see some recovery in those costs. I would point to logistics, in particular, that we're seeing some recovery there as well as some of the expedite fees. I still think there's 70 basis points, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, impact to supply constraint costs. So there's still opportunity for it to get better.

是的。在毛利率方面，我們開始看到這些成本有所回升。我想特別指出物流方面，我們看到那裡的一些復甦以及一些加急費用。我仍然認為有 70 個基點，也許多一點，也許少一點，對供應約束成本的影響。所以它仍然有機會變得更好。

The other thing I would add is we did call out -- I called out in my prepared remarks, we are seeing some higher inventory-related expenses that were in Q2, and I expect some of those to persist into the second half. But that's been factored into the guidance that we provided on gross margin.

我要補充的另一件事是，我們確實呼籲——我在準備好的發言中指出，我們看到第二季度與庫存相關的費用有所增加，我預計其中一些費用將持續到下半年。但這已納入我們提供的毛利率指導中。

The next question is from Atif Malik with Citi.

下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Atif Malik。

Good to see orders growing double digits sequentially. I have a question for Ken. I apologize, I'm a bit new to covering Juniper. Ken, why provide a full year outlook given Cloud and Service weakness? Is this because of supply chain tightness that you guys saw during COVID, which stretched your lead times? I'm just trying to understand the rationale behind providing the outlook for this year and even commentary into next year.

很高興看到訂單連續增長兩位數。我有一個問題要問肯。抱歉，我對報導 Juniper 有點陌生。 Ken，考慮到雲和服務的弱點，為什麼要提供全年展望？這是因為你們在新冠疫情期間看到供應鏈緊張，從而延長了你們的交貨時間嗎？我只是想了解提供今年展望甚至明年評論背後的基本原理。

Yes. So the commentary to next year, just to be clear, we are not providing an outlook for 2024. We're trying to provide you with the puts and takes, right? And we do think Enterprise, that is the one outlook we did provide. We do expect to grow Enterprise next year given the strength of our products and the differentiation we enjoy there. But Cloud and SP, way too early to call, therefore, too early to call the aggregate number.

是的。因此，對於明年的評論，需要明確的是，我們不會提供 2024 年的展望。我們正在努力為您提供看跌期權和收益，對嗎？我們確實認為企業，這是我們確實提供的一種前景。鑑於我們產品的實力和我們在企業中享有的差異化優勢，我們確實預計明年企業業務將得到發展。但云和SP，呼叫的方式還為時過早，因此，呼叫聚合號碼還為時過早。

For this year, the rest of it really is just about Q3, what we're providing guidance for, and really Q4. And we did provide a range, 5% to 6%, for the full year. I do think that's -- based on current visibility, we feel comfortable with that guidance. We still have the elevated backlog that I mentioned earlier. That really does drive a good chunk of the revenue that we're going to recognize for the rest of the year. So it's just really the visibility we have now, we felt comfortable with that type of a range given where we are in the year.

今年，剩下的部分實際上只是關於第三季度，我們正在提供指導，實際上是第四季度。我們確實提供了全年 5% 到 6% 的範圍。我確實認為，根據當前的可見性，我們對這一指導感到滿意。我們之前提到的積壓情況仍然較多。這確實帶來了我們今年剩餘時間將確認的收入的很大一部分。所以這確實是我們現在所擁有的可見性，考慮到我們今年的情況，我們對這種類型的範圍感到滿意。

The next question is from James Fish with Piper Sandler.

下一個問題來自詹姆斯·菲什和派珀·桑德勒。

Look, I know you guys are highlighting digestion and also highlighted Ethernet as the kind of the main protocol over InfiniBand. But Rami, for you, just any updated view why Ethernet will be best for AI workloads? And secondly, given the increased networking demands with AI, is this part of the reason for the optimism for orders to reaccelerate in 2024? And if so, why do you think Juniper's portfolio is best positioned to handle those AI workloads?

看，我知道你們強調消化，也強調以太網作為 InfiniBand 上的主要協議。但是 Rami，對於您來說，為什麼以太網最適合人工智能工作負載，有任何更新的觀點嗎？其次，考慮到人工智能的網絡需求不斷增加，這是否是訂單在 2024 年重新加速增長樂觀的部分原因？如果是這樣，您為什麼認為瞻博網絡的產品組合最適合處理這些人工智能工作負載？

Okay. So the optimism, I would say, is not just rooted in Ethernet being sort of the technology of choice for AI clusters, that's a component of it. But the optimism really is around the fact that traffic growth in Cloud providers continues to grow. Digestion can't happen forever.

好的。因此，我想說，這種樂觀情緒不僅源於以太網是人工智能集群的首選技術，而且也是其中的一個組成部分。但樂觀的事實是雲提供商的流量持續增長。消化不可能永遠發生。

Eventually, they're going to deplete through their inventory and they're going to -- and Cloud providers are going to need to invest in their networks. To the extent that they invest in the wide area, we will benefit from that just based on our footprint. And then in the data center, as you know, we've got a very good footprint in the top 10 and in the broader Cloud Majors.

最終，他們的庫存將會耗盡，雲提供商將需要投資於他們的網絡。只要他們在廣泛的領域進行投資，我們就可以根據我們的足跡從中受益。然後在數據中心，如您所知，我們在前 10 名和更廣泛的雲專業中擁有非常好的足跡。

And I would add to that, and it's an addition, that AI clusters moving to Ethernet would present a net new opportunity for us. And to your question about why Ethernet and not InfiniBand, I mean, obviously, today, most AI clusters are built with InfiniBand. In the future, however, Ethernet present -- has some distinct advantages.

我想補充一點，這是一個補充，人工智能集群遷移到以太網將為我們帶來一個全新的機會。至於你關於為什麼是以太網而不是 InfiniBand 的問題，我的意思是，顯然，今天大多數人工智能集群都是用 InfiniBand 構建的。然而，在未來，以太網將具有一些獨特的優勢。

From an economic standpoint, it's got a broader ecosystem. So it's not just Juniper. There will be a number of players. They're going to be innovating in the Ethernet space to capture the requirement of AI clusters. That means from an economic standpoint, customers that want to deploy large language model-type clusters are going to benefit economically from moving to Ethernet.

從經濟角度來看，它擁有更廣泛的生態系統。所以這不僅僅是瞻博網絡。將會有很多玩家。他們將在以太網領域進行創新，以滿足人工智能集群的需求。這意味著從經濟角度來看，想要部署大型語言模型類型集群的客戶將從遷移到以太網中獲得經濟利益。

But I want to just highlight that this does not happen overnight. This is going to be something that will take several quarters, likely over a year or so, in order for Ethernet to start having a meaningful volume of business tied to AI cluster networking.

但我想強調的是，這不會在一夜之間發生。這將需要幾個季度的時間，可能需要一年左右的時間，以太網才能開始擁有與人工智能集群網絡相關的有意義的業務量。

Helpful. And if I could just follow up there on your comments. Any sense as to how much excess inventory the Cloud and Service Providers are holding versus normal? Is it more the inventory issue is on the Cloud side with kind of the deployment issue on the Service Provider side? Or is it kind of the same pane across both?

有幫助。如果我能跟進你的評論就好了。對於雲和服務提供商持有的庫存與正常情況相比有多少過剩庫存有任何感覺嗎？是否更多的是庫存問題在雲端而部署問題在服務提供商端？或者兩者是同一個窗格嗎？

Well, it's mostly a cloud provider thing. It's to a lesser extent in the service provider space Obviously, they're sitting on elevated inventory. When we talk about digestion, really, it means that they are drawing down that inventory and deploying it into their networks. I think your question is really getting to the timing. And we don't know with certainty at this point in time. I can tell you there's going to be several quarters before -- as they draw down inventory, do that deployment and they start to see the acceleration -- and we start to see the acceleration of orders again.

嗯，這主要是雲提供商的事情。在服務提供商領域，這種情況的程度較小，顯然，他們的庫存增加了。當我們談論消化時，實際上，這意味著他們正在減少庫存並將其部署到他們的網絡中。我認為你的問題確實涉及到時機。目前我們還不能確定。我可以告訴你，在幾個季度之前——當他們減少庫存、進行部署時，他們開始看到加速——我們開始再次看到訂單的加速。

The next question is from Tal Liani with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的塔爾·利亞尼 (Tal Liani)。

Yes. Sorry to ask a third question on the same topic. I just wanted to get the numbers right. Last quarter, you said that backlog was roughly $1.7 billion and the drawdown was about $350 million. This time -- and in the past, you said that the normal backlog is $300 million to $400 million. So this time, you're saying 3x the backlog. So if I take the $400 million, the high end, it's $1.2 billion, and it means that the backlog drawdown went up from $350 million to $500 million sequentially.

是的。很抱歉就同一主題提出第三個問題。我只是想讓數字正確。上個季度，您說積壓訂單約為 17 億美元，提款約為 3.5 億美元。這次——以及過去，您都說過正常的積壓是 3 億至 4 億美元。所以這一次，你說的是 3 倍的積壓。因此，如果我取 4 億美元，即上限，即 12 億美元，這意味著積壓訂單提款額從 3.5 億美元連續上升至 5 億美元。

But then you're saying that by the end of the year, it will be $800 million to $1 billion. So that means that the -- you expect the backlog drawdown to slow down materially in the next 2 quarters. I just want to make sure that the numbers that we have are correct. Or if you can give us -- be a little bit more specific with that because I'm sure everyone is doing the same math to understand the backlog drawdown.

但你說到今年年底，它將達到 8 億至 10 億美元。因此，這意味著您預計積壓訂單減少將在未來兩個季度大幅放緩。我只是想確保我們掌握的數字是正確的。或者，如果您能給我們提供更具體的信息，因為我確信每個人都在做同樣的數學來了解積壓的縮減。

Yes. Let me add some specificity to the backlog. So we have talked about we ended the last quarter, Q2, at approximately 3x number of levels. We're between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion, right? That would be our current backlog position, between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion. And I do still expect to exit the year at approximately 2x. I'm using $400 million as my average.

是的。讓我為待辦事項添加一些具體內容。因此，我們已經討論過，我們在上個季度（即第二季度）結束時達到了大約 3 倍的水平。我們的資產在 12 億到 13 億美元之間，對吧？這就是我們目前的積壓頭寸，在 12 億美元到 13 億美元之間。我仍然預計今年的回報率約為 2 倍。我用 4 億美元作為我的平均值。

So that means approximately $800 million. So currently, $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion, expect to exit the year at approximately $800 million. That does presume a bit of a slowdown in the second half as compared to the first half. But that's obviously based on our expectations of shipments and bookings for the rest of the year.

這意味著大約 8 億美元。因此，目前預計 12 億至 13 億美元，今年退出的金額約為 8 億美元。這確實假設下半年與上半年相比會有所放緩。但這顯然是基於我們對今年剩餘時間的出貨量和預訂量的預期。

Got it. on the same topic, but differently, if the weakness is coming -- the order weakness is coming mainly from Cloud and a little bit less than in Service Providers, and on the other hand your Enterprise is very strong, so does it mean that the backlog drawdown is much more meaningful as a percentage of your revenues in these verticals? So I'm just trying to understand if we should assume that the backlog drawdown is mostly tilted towards the Service Providers and Cloud and less to the Enterprise given the difference in the revenue performance.

知道了。在同一主題上，但不同的是，如果弱點即將到來——訂單弱點主要來自云，比服務提供商少一點，而另一方面，您的企業非常強大，那麼這是否意味著積壓訂單縮減佔這些垂直領域收入的百分比是否更有意義？因此，我只是想了解，考慮到收入表現的差異，我們是否應該假設積壓的縮減主要向服務提供商和雲傾斜，而較少向企業傾斜。

Yes. So I do expect this year, we'll exit with elevated -- I think the proportion will be more Enterprise versus how we entered the year, which was more proportional to our revenue. That said, our revenue is also starting to [slant] much more towards enterprise as well. So that backlog is getting the bookings growth.

是的。因此，我確實預計今年我們將以更高的價格退出——我認為企業的比例將更多，而不是我們進入這一年的方式，這與我們的收入成正比。也就是說，我們的收入也開始更多地向企業傾斜。因此，積壓的訂單正在推動預訂量的增長。

So the decline in that backlog is less than the other verticals, which are actually declining on a year-over-year basis. From a bookings perspective, revenue is holding up a little bit better, particularly Service Provider revenue, which is up on a first half basis. So yes, we are burning a little bit more in those 2 verticals as compared to our Enterprise vertical.

因此，該積壓訂單的下降幅度小於其他垂直行業，而其他垂直行業實際上正在逐年下降。從預訂的角度來看，收入狀況稍好一些，尤其是服務提供商收入，較上半年有所增長。所以，是的，與我們的企業垂直領域相比，我們在這兩個垂直領域的燃燒更多一些。

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

我們的問答環節已經結束。今天的會議到此結束，此時您可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。