3Com launches its strategy for building e-networks for e-business applications

3Com has outlined its strategy for providing business enterprises with `e-Networks` 3/4 networks especially suited for supporting modern e-business applications. Backing this approach, 3Com has announced competitive new products and outlined plans for future e-Networking products. Locally, 3Com SA will be launching an aggressive `e-Networks` marketing campaign during November.

"The main message behind the announcement is that if companies are thinking of any e-business application, 3Com is in a position to give a variety of e-network offerings for the infrastructure," says 3Com SA`s regional director, Buddie Ceronie.

He reports that the company distinguished e-Networks from other approaches to networking at its recent Networks3 annual western hemisphere user conference. Advantages which were highlighted included more comprehensive support for voice, video and data applications, a broader range of products allowing people to access those applications and complete systems for ensuring continuous e-network service (i.e., reliability and availability).

Through its networking systems, customer support and consulting services, 3Com will apply these three fundamental attributes 3/4 application support, access and availability - to corporate intranets, extranets, and Internet connectivity, explains Ceronie. This holistic approach to e-business networking provides an infrastructure for an entire e-business enterprise:

.         internal operations (employee connectivity for key applications such as enterprise resource planning applications);

.         business partners (supplier/distributor connectivity for key applications such as supply chain management);

.         customers (consumer-to-business or business-to-business connectivity for e-commerce, customer relationship management and help desk applications).

.         3Com`s competitive new products and plans for future e-Networking products include:

.         For the centre of e-Networks: New industry-leading LAN (local area network) performance, access and availability enhancements and a range of e-Network services based on 3Com`s flagship enterprise system, the CoreBuilder 9000 family of chassis switches;

.         For managing e-Networks: Advanced policy-based management software to manage the behavior of mixed-vendor networks based on 3Com and other vendors` equipment, including Cisco products;

.         For lowering the cost of e-Networks: new 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet systems for driving down the cost of high-performance LAN access to bandwidth-demanding e-business applications.

The enterprise e-Networks strategy complements 3Com`s solutions for telecommunications carriers and other network service providers, comprising a highly available access infrastructure for e-business based on dial-up remote access, wireless and voice technologies.

At Networks3, Eric Benhamou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 3Com Corporation said, "The tremendous growth of electronic business will have a dramatic impact on enterprises, service providers and small businesses alike. To prepare for this economic revolution, customers are demanding, and 3Com is delivering, the e-Network capabilities that will ensure highly-available, scalable and secure access to the applications that will become the foundation for economic success in the 21st century."

New e-Networking Systems for e-Business

3Com has also announced major application, access and availability enhancements to its flagship CoreBuilder family of networking systems. "This makes it the most flexible, cost-effective and reliable system for deploying LAN infrastructure and e-Network services for e-business," says Ceronie.

Enhancements include a third chassis for the family, very high performance Layer 2 and multilayer switching and new high-availability software. "Now, the CoreBuilder product line is the only family of fully compatible chassis systems that can be deployed in all areas of the network (wiring closet, server farm and data center), simplifying and lowering the cost of e-Networking services," he adds. "The new switching option provides up to nine times the performance of competing systems."

The company also announced its intentions to enrich the CoreBuilder platform with a broad set of e-Networking services: LAN telephony, voice gateway, policy services, etc.

Simplifying the Management of e-Networks

3Com also unveiled its plans for simplifying e-Network management. The company will collaborate with IPHighway to develop standards-based, policy-based software to ensure the reliable delivery, secure access and consistent availability of e-Network services for e-business applications.

The collaboration is expected to result in new 3Com Transcend policy management software rolled out in 2000, enabling a business to ensure security, user-based policy and prioritization from desktops through the LAN to the WAN (wide area network).

Ceronie stresses that this is essential for businesses and enterprises that want to deploy advanced 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, require this advanced level of management.

3Com expects this to be the industry`s first multi-vendor, policy-based solution. "For example, it will enable IT staff to policy-manage networks based on 3Com and Cisco equipment," he says. "The forthcoming suite of 3Com policy management solutions address the needs of business enterprises as well as carriers and network service providers."

Lowering the Cost of High-Speed, Access to e-business Applications, e-Networking Services

3Com has outlined its three-phase strategy for enabling enterprises to deploy high speed Gigabit Ethernet LAN technology over their existing copper wire-based local area networks. Gigabit Ethernet, currently a fiber-based technology, is a requirement for alleviating network bottlenecks and for deploying bandwidth-hungry multimedia applications (such as video conferencing) and new services for e-business applications (such as LAN telephony-based call centers and help desks).

Compared to fiber-based solutions, 1000BASE-T copper solutions potentially cut the cost of Gigabit Ethernet networking by as much as 50 percent. Ceronie says that this three-phase strategy gives business a step-by-step process to implement future 3Com products based on the new 1000BASE-T standard for running networks at Gigabit speeds over Category 5 copper cabling.

The phases include: 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 solutions planned to be available in the second half of 2000.