Newbridge is on the move, thanks to the maneuvers of Terry Matthews. For one thing, Matthews recognizes the power of partnerships. At NetWorld+Interop 97 last fall, Newbridge announced an alliance with 3Com and Siemens AG to provide end-to-end managed IP services for carrier and enterprise networks.
The effort, called Carrier Scale Internetworking (CSI), was hailed by analysts as a compelling reason for carriers and enterprises to buy equipment from these three companies.
Indeed, 3Com could help Newbridge crack more enterprise sales. That would be gravy on top of the significant frame relay and ATM WAN switch business Newbridge already is winning in the carrier core, thanks to its pre-CSI alliance with Siemens.
There is serious momentum behind Newbridge's WAN switches right now, especially its MainStreetXpress 36170 Multiservices Switch. There were more than 60 carrier and enterprise customers for the MainStreetXpress 36170 switch in the first quarter of fiscal 1998 alone, including 12 new customers. And Newbridge continued to grow its frame relay-over-ATM revenues significantly faster than the overall frame relay market growth rate during that quarter.
With results like that, and the potential of the CSI alliance, Matthews is positioning Newbridge as a top supplier of high-speed networks.
