Convergence divergence

Vendor debate reveals interoperability issues, spotty product plans.

By Jim Duffy
Network World, 09/20/99

ATLANTA - Despite the hype surrounding the benefits of convergence, vendors' strategies remain largely incomplete and concerns about the reliability of data networks to carry voice are pervasive.

These were the general conclusions after Network World's Convergence Showdown last week at NetWorld+Interop '99 Atlanta. The presidential-style debate featured representatives of 3Com, Cabletron, Cisco, Lucent, Nortel Networks and Vertical Networks.

While there were no clear winners, holes in vendors' plans were exposed and a host of unresolved issues were brought to the surface.

"I was struck by how much work we still have to do on this topic," says Jim Metzler, a principal of Ashton, Metzler and Associates, and a Showdown panelist. "We need more conversation on why the enterprise cares" about convergence.

"Today's convergence story is mostly just that - a story," said Romulus Pereira, chief operating officer at Cabletron. "Convergence spans more than the integration of voice, video and data" to build truly converged networks, Pereira said. Businesses need better management tools as well as consulting and support services that aren't available today, he added.

At the debate - where vendors fielded questions from Metzler, another consultant, this reporter, and each other - product interoperability issues were raised not only among multivendor convergence environments, but also in single-vendor environments in which several disparate products obtained from acquired companies might be pulled together.

The interoperability issue is key if vendors want to assure users that they can provide end-to-end quality of service in a converged voice/data/video network.

Lastly, vendors were challenged when it came to articulating a clear and compelling business case for converging separate enterprise networks into one.

"We're not yet seeing the killer application, although we've got some in mind," such as unified messaging and distributed call centers, said Karyn Mashima, Lucent's strategy vice president and chief technical officer (CTO).

The debate suggested that the vendor strategies for converging enterprise nets play off each one's particular strength. For example, Lucent and Nortel are concerned with protecting their installed base of circuit-switched PBXs, while Cisco extols the virtues of distributing and interconnecting PBX features through its LAN switches and routers. Cabletron's convergence story focuses on managing the converged environment with its Spectrum platform, while 3Com appears to be excluding large enterprise requirements after plans to create a new LAN telephony company with Siemens were scrapped.

Cisco's Marthin De Beer, director of the company's enterprise convergence strategy, asked if and how Lucent will open up its PBX base to IP telephony standards after a long legacy in proprietary PBX platforms.

"This is a great question - I love this - coming from the Proprietary King," Mashima quipped.

Vertical Networks' CTO Scott Pickett asked Nortel's president of enterprise voice solutions, T.J. Fitzpatrick, how his company can sell an array of complex products to a confused PBX customer base.

"Each one of the buyers has its own motivation" for converging or not, Fitzpatrick replied. "[Their decision] is not what we believe in, it's what the buyer is actually doing."

3Com was asked whether canceling its plans to create a new LAN telephony company with Siemens was a setback to the company's convergence strategy. 3Com's Bob Roman assured the panel and audience that it was not - just a change in execution.

Nortel then set its sights on Cisco and the issue of voice reliability on data networks. Fitzpatrick asked De Beer if he supported Cisco CTO Judy Estrin's alleged claim that data networks are more reliable than the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

"We've canceled all of our leases on all the PBXs in Cisco," was De Beer's confident reply.

An audience participant asked De Beer if the common practice of rebooting or resetting routers after a software patch or upgrade compromised reliability. De Beer replied that a distributed IP telephony infrastructure with redundant and alternate paths is inherently more reliable than a circuit-switched campus or the PSTN.

Lucent's Mashima challenged Pickett on the interoperability of Vertical Networks' InstantOffice PBX/LAN router with the installed base of PBXs. She also asked Roman whether 3Com's NBX LAN telephony product was based on a closed environment.

The give-and-take among the vendors and panelists, though lively and at times strident, failed to reveal a pressing business need for converged networks.

John Gallant, editorial director of Network World, moderated the debate. Among the panelists: Kevin Tolly, president of The Tolly Group consulting group.