A relocated, scaled-down ComNet 2004 opens its doors this week promising practical tips for IT executives, as well as product and service unveilings from Foundry Network, NetScout, Quick Eagle and Sprint.
A relocated, scaled-down ComNet 2004 opens its doors this week promising practical tips for IT executives, as well as product and service unveilings from Foundry Network, NetScout, Quick Eagle and Sprint.
Once a premier service-provider forum that packed the old Washington Convention Center, ComNet has only 76 exhibitors listed on its Web site, down from last year’s 141. Organizers would not say how many attendees are registered, but acknowledge that last year’s audience of 16,000 was only about half of pre-conference projections. The show is sponsored by IDG World Expo, a sister company of NetworkWorld.
Now in its 26th year, the show has moved two blocks to the new Washington Convention Center, and its focus has shifted from carriers to corporate networks, as indicated by the products set to debut. These products range from high-speed switching hardware to enterprise routers to performance-management gear.
Among the educational offerings are a series of presentations called 30/60 sessions that promise 30 tips in 60 minutes. Topics include improving the efficiency of remote workers; developing faster, smarter, better IT departments; and what government agencies need to know about IP.
IT innovators
A panel of innovative IT bosses will share experiences gleaned from ongoing projects. Among them is Rock Regan, CIO for the state of Connecticut, who will talk about plans to virtualize servers. Historically the state has bought departments the biggest, fastest servers it can afford when needs arise, figuring that over time they will use more capacity. But that strategy leaves actual use of the servers at 10%, Regan says. He will outline efforts to make better use of what he has with blade servers and virtualization software.
“We’re looking at technology that allows us to create virtual servers and almost servers on demand,” he says. “We’re looking to say, ‘How can we consolidate resources to have fewer servers and then buy capacity only when we need it?'”
Although not exhibiting at the conference, Sprint is using the show to launch its first service based on Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS). Last July the carrier announced its intention to support the technology after long denying the need to support it. Sprint says it will not deploy MPLS in the core of its network, although it acknowledges that customers want MPLS services that can potentially fully mesh sites, prioritize traffic and impose quality of service (QoS) on different traffic types.
“Sprint is losing business because it doesn’t have an MPLS offering,” says David Willis, senior analyst at Meta Group. “It has become a check-off item in RFPs.”
Sprint initially planned to roll out an MPLS offering by the end of last year. The carrier would not offer details about any ComNet announcement. Its competitors AT&T, Equant and MCI already support MPLS.
Sprint also is expected to announce a remote access service based on SSL technology that Aventail supports. The service will let mobile customers with Internet access and Web browsers securely access corporate servers.
The attraction of such a service is that any machine with a Web browser can access the servers as long as the user presents valid authentication. This is seen as an alternative to IPSec remote access VPNs for many users who don’t need network-layer access. The SSL service eliminates the need to install, configure and maintain client software. It also lets users access networks from non-corporate machines such as at partners’ sites or public kiosks.
Aventail SSL servers sit between corporate sites and the Internet and proxy authenticated SSL sessions. Aventail supports similar services for other carriers including AT&T, ANXeBusiness, Bell Canada, IBM Global Services and Infonet.
Foundry will take the ComNet stage to launch high-speed hardware that supports high-availability links to large data centers via its BigIron MG8 enterprise switches. Carrier versions of the new gear can support uplinks to 10G bit/sec metropolitan-area networks (MAN) on Foundry’s NetIron 40G carrier chassis. The company will announce a 10G Ethernet module and two high-density Gigabit Ethernet modules for the two switches.
The two-port 10G Ethernet card gives customers a smaller, less expensive 10G option for BigIron MG8 and NetIron 40G chassis. An earlier card had four ports.
The other two blades being announced are 40-port Gigabit Ethernet cards, one with fiber interfaces and one with copper.
In corporations, this hardware is targeted at large data centers or scientific and research clustering applications. In carrier networks, the blades could aggregate gigabit trunks onto 10G MAN backbones.
The two-port, 10G blade could be used to support failover trunking to 10G data-center uplinks, says Ken Chang, a product director for Foundry. “By pairing ports on separate blades together, one blade can fail, and you would still have your link.”
All Foundry 10G Ethernet modules are based on the XENPAC optical standard that leaves customers the option of configuring ports for either short- or long-haul fiber. The blades for the BigIron chassis cost $35,000. Setting up a similar configuration using the earlier four-port modules would cost more than $100,000.
The new modules each come in two versions, one for corporations and one for carriers, with the carrier version having twice the memory to support higher-scale Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Open Shortest Path First routing.
The 40-port Gigabit Ethernet enterprise modules cost $50,000 for fiber and $45,000 for copper. The carrier versions cost $55,000, and $50,000, respectively. The 10G enterprise module costs $35,000 and the carrier module costs $55,000.
Spotlight: Quick Eagle
Quick Eagle is expected to introduce a family of low-end T-1 routers that are a replacement and upgrade for some of its branch-office routers that it says are less expensive than similar products from Cisco.
The new product family, called the 4300 Access Router series includes two models that are designed to compete with Cisco 2600 series routers. Built on the same chassis, the devices differ in the number of Ethernet ports they have and software options. They lack integration with Cisco management and other Cisco products.
The 4330T comes with one 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet port, a DSU/CSU and a T-1 port. Options include turning on a second T-1 port that ships with the router, as well as Differentiated Services software to impose QoS on traffic. Other options are support for BGP4 routing and drop-and-insert capabilities. The base price is $1,400.
The 4335T comes with two 10/100M Ethernet ports and a T-1 port. It costs $1,800 and has the same options as the 4330T.
Network management vendors also plan to use ComNet to showcase new wares designed to better manage traffic and pinpoint performance problems in converged networks.
Allot Communications will unveil “monitoring-only” options with its NetEnforcer product line, which the company says will help network managers spot bottlenecks on their networks without breaking the bank. For example, NetEnforcer’s AC-202 appliance costs $3,200 with the Monitoring option, vs. $5,500 for the same appliance with the software bundle enabled.
The NetEnforcer suite was built on policy-based, network traffic-management appliances bundled with software to identify potential performance, bandwidth and security problems. Now the monitoring-only option unbundles the software, letting customers pick just the software they want. The appliance can be upgraded remotely by Allot if customers want more capabilities.
The NetEnforcer AC-202 supports bidirectional throughput speeds up to 10M bit/sec. The NetEnforcer AC-402 supports bidirectional throughput speeds up to 100M bit/sec with pricing starting at $8,000. Allot’s high-end NetEnforcer AC-1000 series supports bidirectional throughput speeds up to 1G bit/sec with prices starting at $32,000.
Also at the show, NetScout plans to announce upgrades to its performance management software and network probes. The company added features that monitor the performance of Citrix in converged networks.
NetScout’s nGenius Performance Manager 2.0.1 and nGenius Probe Firmware 6.0.1 now provide visibility into the performance of Citrix-served applications. Citrix Systems provides software that lets client devices connect to and run applications loaded on Windows NT/2000 or Unix servers.
Network executives can centralize and manage applications on groups of servers, instead of on hundreds or thousands of individual PCs.
The challenge managing applications delivered via a Citrix-hosted server, NetScout says, is pinpointing performance problems among the applications. “Citrix allows IT staff to centrally host common applications, like Microsoft Office, which is an inexpensive and attractive alternative,” says Eileen Haggarty, a product manager at NetScout. “But once the apps are converted to Citrix, they can become a black hole in terms of performance management.”
The new features will let network managers automatically monitor Citrix traffic flows to see how other services and network changes affect performance. NetScout says the software and hardware probes also can distinguish between network, server and application performance faults, ultimately reducing time to find and fix problems.
