Juniper must be feeling increasingly like the wallflower at the dance. As its rivals and partners pair up around it, it has failed to secure an Ericsson acquisition (reportedly discussed seriously in the wake of news of the Nokia/ALU deal). It has worked hard to partner with cellular network providers to create some crossover into mobile for its IP business – which has always been more oriented to carriers than Cisco’s, and is highly regarded in that sector. But its arrangements with Nokia and Ericsson look threatened now by those firms’ new marriages, and Juniper is reported to have been under pressure from activist investors to take itself private. It is certainly running out of potential mergers of its own,…