David, I read that entire article when I first saw it as the cover story to this month's Forbes Magazine. Well worth reading in my opinion. Here's a side article to the cover story: (each company listed in the side-article below has a separtate business strategy... some of them make the switches, others are compiling the networks. As far as I can tell, most are marketing their products here in the States. DGIV's strategy is entirely different. They are working to get a portion of the global market for IP telephony... not just the US's market)
The next-generation
gearheads
By Toni Mack
Telecom and data service providers will spend
an estimated $380 billion to create public data
networks by 2008. Startup companies are
making faster switches with higher service quality
and greater reliability than the current generation.
Here are six to watch.
Juniper Networks, Inc.
Founded: February 1996
Equity: $62 million
Strategic partner: IBM
Product: Gigabit/terabit router for Internet
Mountain View, Calif. (data) packet switching
Team: CEO was cofounder of Stratacom; CTO, a
principal scientist, XeroxPARC
Distinction: High profile investors, including
3Com, AT&T, Ericsson, Northern Telecom,
Philip Anschutz, Uunet, Lucent.
Avici Systems
Founded: November 1996
Equity: $72 million Strategic partner: Northern
Telecom (owns 20%)
Product: 1.4 terabit North Billerica, Mass.
switch-router for Internet packet switching
Team: CEO from US Robotics Corp. (3Com);
others from Lucent, Cisco, AT&T.
Distinction: Will be largest capacity Internet
packet switch to market.
Torrent Networking Technologies
Founded: April 1996
Equity: $23 million
Strategic partner: Hughes Network Systems
Product: IP9000 Gigabit Silver Spring, Md.
Router for Internet packet switching
Team: CEO from AT&T Bell Labs; other
executives, 3Com, Newbridge Networks.
Distinction: Only company shipping product;
routers for enterprise (private) networks.
Pluris
Founded: August 1996
Employees: 50
Equity: $3.2 million
Product: Terabit network router for Internet
packet Cupertino, Calif. switching
Team: CEO from AT&T; CTO, Sprint, nCube.
Distinction: Claims to use eight dimensions to
grow switch sytems, others three.
NetCore Systems
Founded: October 1996 Equity: $14 million
Product: 1.2 terabit switch-router for Internet
and voice packet switching Wilmington, Mass.
Team: 4 founders created Applitek-LANcity
(Bay Networks) then Sigma Network Systems
(Cabletron) together.
Distinction: Will be first to market with
switch-router for carrier (public) networks.
Argon Networks
Founded: March 1997
Equity: $34 million
Product: 160 gigabit GigaPacket Node
(switch-router)
Team: CEO from Littleton, Mass. Stratus
Computer; CTO founded Wellfleet
Communications.
Distinction: AT&T Ventures an investor; claims
to have first switch that fuses Internet and voice
packet switching.
forbes.com |
