Back to the 1997 tech planning survey Includes complete survey results. Emmett is a freelance writer in Wallingford, Pa. She can be contacted at ArielleEm @aol.com.

Slow ATM growth in LANs and WANs

By Arielle Emmett
Network World, 12/15/97

Most companies are taking a cautious and incremental approach to ATM. The survey shows that two-thirds of all respondents currently without an ATM WAN have no plans to deploy one. Of those, 84% say it's unnecessary or that other services suffice.

"ATM is still not generally there on a wide-scale basis,'' Cunningham says. ATM was previously procured as a way to buy frame relay services under a negotiated deal rather than at more expensive tariffed rates. Demand for ATM may lessen now that frame relay has become a nontariffed service, he notes.

Michigan National Bank is one organization that chose frame relay over ATM. The $10 billion institution simply doesn't need the bandwidth of ATM in the LAN or WAN, says Bill Harkema, telecommunications engineering manager at bank headquarters in Lansing, Mich.

Cost and ease of use were other factors that contributed to the decision.

So where can you find ATM? It's most often implemented in the backbone of larger, Fortune 500-type businesses, says Dean Thompson, manager of network services for Cleveland-based Berish and Associates. MTD Products, Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc. and LTV Steel are just a few of the systems integrator's clients that are on the path to ATM.

"ATM is typically replacing either Fast Ethernet or, in some cases, regular Ethernet, and token ring is going to the wayward side,'' Thompson says. "I'm seeing IS power users and professionals getting 100 megabit Ethernet switched to their servers and desktops, mostly for CAD and database applications.''

ATM's got backbone in Virginia. The State of Virginia Information Technology Division manages 5,000 to 6,000 users in a private network that branches out to state agencies in 350 re-mote sites. The majority of the sites use frame relay to connect to each other, though the IT division gradually is implementing ATM backbones at more than 65 sites, says Rodney Taylor, a senior computer engineer. The state is migrating to ATM campus backbones to combine voice and data and to increase bandwidth.

"We're starting with 10 sites and then moving up to 68,'' he says. Taylor currently is testing ATM edge switches from ADC Kentrox, FORE Systems, Inc. and Cisco Systems, Inc., and expects to complete the upgrade within three to six months.

Taylor is in a distinct minority. Only 16% of respondents currently are using ATM in the LAN. A surprising 69% of non-ATM sites don't plan to deploy it in the campus, while those who do could be swayed by Gigabit Ethernet or another competing technology.

Nearly 50% would rethink future ATM deployment plans if something less expensive comes along, while 41% might abandon ATM plans if Gigabit Ethernet emerges as a viable alternative.

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