CHICAGO - 3Com yesterday outlined its strategy and product offerings for providing businesses with networks designed for e-business applications.
The announcements were made at 3Com's Networks3 user group conference here.
The company's strategy, called e-Networks, stretches across all 3Com product lines, from network interface cards at user desktops, to workgroup and backbone LAN switches, as well as to dial access concentrators and WAN switches at service provider points of presence. But the key platform on which e-Networks will be based is 3Com's CoreBuilder 9000 enterprise data center switch.
"We have a full commitment to this platform," says Edgar Masri, senior vice president of 3Com's network systems business unit, attempting to dispel rumors spread by competitors that 3Com was not backing the big switch.
Some customers have gotten the message. U.S. Xpress, the fifth largest publicly traded truckload carrier, just spent $1.2 million on a Gigabit Ethernet e-Network based on 3Com's CoreBuilder 9000.
"Their vision of e-commerce matched our own," says Norman Thomas, vice president of information services at U.S. Xpress.
The e-Networks strategy is based on three building blocks: applications, access and availability. Applications refers to the infrastructure for supporting e-business applications, such as the CoreBuilder 9000 switch. Access pertains to the e-business optimized WAN access products in the 3Com portfolio, such as the PathBuilder switches. And availability refers to scalable, redundant components within the 3Com product line to ensure application uptime and no single point of failure.
New products to support this strategy include an eight-slot version of the CoreBuilder 9000 switch for wiring closet, backbone and data center applications ( www.nwfusion.com/archive/1999/75856_09-20-1999.html). The new switch offers all of the redundancy of the 16-slot CoreBuilder 9000 but half the port density and cost.
3Com also announced its long awaited Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet modules for the CoreBuilder 9000, which are based on the company's FIRE ASIC. These modules sport four Gigabit Ethernet ports, provide wire-speed IP and IPX routing and switching at 8 million packet/sec, and feature 802.1p packet tagging for prioritization and quality of service (QoS).
The modules enable the CoreBuilder 9000 to support from 24 to 56 Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports in the eight- or 16-slot chassis, respectively.
3Com also announced new software for the CoreBuilder switches. Version 3.0 of CoreBuilder software adds 802.1p packet tagging for priority and QoS, the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for routing table backup, and MultiPoint Link Aggregation for building fault tolerant links between switches.
3Com says the CoreBuilder 9000 will be enhanced over the next year to support network service provisioning. Such services include LAN telephony, voice gateway, policy services and server load balancing. Many of these services will be integrated into the switch via an embedded Windows NT module shipping next year.
The eight-slot CoreBuilder 9000 chassis costs $6,995 and is shipping now. The four-port Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet blades cost $19,995 and will ship in December. The Version 3.0 software is downloadable from 3Com's Web site.
For managing e-Networks, 3Com says it will collaborate with IPHighway to develop standards-based, policy-based software to ensure the reliable delivery, secure access and consistent availability of network services for e-business applications. The collaboration is expected to result in new 3Com Transcend policy management software. This software will be rolled out in 2000 and will enable a business to ensure security, user-based policy and prioritization from desktops through the LAN to the WAN. In 2001, 3Com will extend user- and application-based policies to this software.
3Com says this prioritization is essential for businesses and enterprises that want to deploy applications such as enterprise resource planning, supply chain management with business partners and relationship management with customers. New e-Network services, such as voice and streaming video, also require this level of management, 3Com says.
The IP Highway-enabled Transcend package will allow IT staff to policy-manage networks based on 3Com and Cisco equipment. It will be available in the second quarter of 2000 for Windows 2000 and Sun Solaris platforms.
To lower the cost of implementing e-Networks, 3Com also outlined a three-phase strategy for enabling enterprises to deploy Gigabit Ethernet over their existing copper wire-based LANs.
The 1000BASE-T copper wiring standard cuts the cost of deploying Gigabit Ethernet in half, 3Com says. The three phases of 3Com's 1000BASE-T strategy are: customer consulting services available now, 1000BASE-T compliant SuperStack II systems and network interface cards scheduled to be available in the first half of 2000, and 1000BASE-T compliant CoreBuilder switches planned to be available in the second half of 2000.
3Com demonstrated an eight-port 1000BASE-T switch and 1000BASE-T NIC at NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta two months ago.
3Com did not disclose pricing for the 1000BASE-T products.
3Com can be found at www.3com.com.
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