Product strategy struggles put
Ascend on descent
By Scott Berinato, PC Week Online
12.22.97 10:00 am ET
Is Ascend Communications Inc. losing its
grip as a leader in the remote access
hardware market for service providers?
The company has stumbled in delivering a
voice module for the MAX TNT access
concentrator and, so far, has failed to
develop an end-to-end VPN (virtual private
network) architecture.
Couple this with the Alameda, Calif., company's overburdened 56K-bps
modem trade-in program and the headache of its $3.7 billion merger with
Cascade Communications Inc., and you have "an ascendant WAN power
that doesn't seem to know it," said one analyst who requested anonymity.
"They have to wake up."
That perceived lack of direction has also fueled acquisition rumors; the
latest potential buyer is said to be Lucent Technologies Inc.
Customers are more concerned with product development than
acquisitions. "The level of support is good, but Ascend is definitely at a
point where they have to figure out what they want to be when they grow
up," said one IT administrator at a major ISP (Internet service provider)
using Ascend equipment, who requested anonymity.
Analysts said Ascend must adapt quickly, or it may be outdistanced by
most of the other WAN equipment providers.
Ascend will try to get back on track with a super-high-density access
concentrator in the first half of next year. The voice module and a
comprehensive VPN strategy that bridges Ascend and Cascade products
are due in the first quarter of next year, according to sources.
"They have to bolster customers' confidence that TNT can be applied to
[new services]," said Brad Baldwin, an analyst with International Data
Corp., in San Francisco.
What users want is a mature platform, which is not how TNT was
perceived.
"They did the worst thing. They brought a platform out that wasn't ready,"
said the ISP administrator. "[But] I'd say the problems have been
identified and are being addressed." |
