* 3Com makes strides in areas of VoIP and security
3Com may be getting a good portion of its LAN switching from its joint effort with Huawei Technologies, but it is hitting the hot areas of VoIP and security on its own.
The company this week introduced several IP phones and an upgrade to its IP PBX. The phones include a $365 model that supports Gigabit Ethernet and can manage up to 12 calls simultaneously. There are also two cordless phones that can roam as far as 1,000 feet from the base station. The new phones mean 3Com now has eight different IP phone options.
Full details are available in my colleague Phil Hochmuth’s story:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/052305-3com-nbx.html
Just last week, Network World’s Tim Greene reported that 3Com would bring together its intrusion-prevention systems and switches in new ways. If the intrusion-prevention technology detects an attack, switches will be able to shut down switch ports and confine the attack to a virtual LAN:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/051605-tippingpoint.html
Several other vendors came out with similar security approaches last year. Alcatel touts its Automated Quarantine Engine as a combination of hardware and software that can cut an infected device off from the rest of a network and fully interoperates with other vendors’ switches. Enterasys early last year introduced its Dynamic Intrusion Response System for security and a partner program so that Enterasys switches that support DIRS can communicate with products from other vendors. Then of course there is Cisco, which is also bringing vendors together under its banner of Network Access Control.
It will be interesting to see how all of these efforts shake out, and how 3Com’s efforts will play into them.
