Routers down, switches up, report predicts

Network World
February 04, 2003 11:39 AM ET

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The router market will remain depressed , while Ethernet switch sales are expected to be up over last year, according to Dell'Oro Group. Dell'Oro says worldwide router sales will decline 2% from 2002, reaching $6.2 billion this year - the third year in a row the market will shrink. Expected carrier spending cutbacks of 5% to 10% on wireline equipment is the cause for the slide, Dell'Oro says. Growth in the market is expected over the long run, as router sales are expected to reach $7.9 billion by 2007. Meanwhile, worldwide Ethernet LAN switch sales will grow 3% this year to $11.7 billion. The firm says network expansions at small and midsize businesses will spur growth over the next several years, with the market reaching $16 billion by 2007.
Bankruptcy, scandal and management shifts at the highest levels do affect a company's bottom line. While most watching WorldCom over the past year did not expect the carrier to win a ton of new business, no one really knew what WorldCom was banking. Last week an internal sales report became public. The document details sales for the carrier from January to December 2002 for certain market segments only. According to the document, the carrier reported corporate account sales of $7.3 million in January 2002. By December that figure dropped to $3.5 million. The document also detailed the company's global account sales. In January 2002 sales totaled $11 million. By December global account sales dropped to $6.1 million. Corporate markets include data services for large business users. Global markets include data services for multinational users only.
Internet Broadcasting Systems, the Minnesota company that broadcasts content on the Web on behalf of more than 60 television stations, last week suffered a massive denial-of-service attack on its Web site a few hours before President Bush's state of the union address. The attack crippled the site until ISPs, including UUNET, could filter out the incoming attack packets, a process that took about two hours. According to IBS President Reid Johnson, the company is working with technical advisers to prevent future DoS attacks.
Symantec last week had to correct a flaw in its Web site where information about possible business deals with outside firms was exposed to Web visitors through a portion of the Symantec site called "submit a deal." This part of the Web site lets companies wanting to enter into business deals with Symantec file their suggestions via an electronic form, but because of Symantec's failure to ensure proper password authentication, among other things, the information was left exposed. According to Symantec spokesman Chris Paden, the security lapse lasted about three days after Symantec had made changes to the site. NGS Software discovered the problem.
The agreement last week between European data protection officials and Microsoft to alter the .Net Passport service and better protect personal data is more show than substance, according to privacy experts and analysts familiar with the terms of the agreement. "This is a case of Microsoft's self-interest and the European Union's interest in protecting its citizens being happily aligned," said Dwight Davis, vice president of Summit Strategies. Despite blustery statements from European officials about wringing "substantial changes" to .Net Passport out of Microsoft, the modifications agreed to are "tweaks," Davis said. Those changes include giving users finer control of what information they share with Passport, a summary of key information about privacy policies within the EU, a link to the European Commission's site on data protection laws and a tool for creating secure passwords. Users will be able to take advantage of the features through the addition of a prompt that will ask them to designate themselves as European Union residents.
The industrywide consortium Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards last week said it has released the first draft of a royalty-free data representation standard for e-commerce. The draft, prepared by OASIS' Universal Business Language Technical Committee, contains specifications for XML representations of seven key business documents: order, order response, simple order response, order cancellation, despatch advice, receipt advice and invoice. The UBL specifications will be widely applicable in general business;in the accounting, customs, taxation and shipping industries; and anywhere that supply-chain management is involved.