A bit o' press for the Nbase/Xyplex folks...
ROUTER MARKET -- VARs Evolve To Meet New
Demands
July 22, 1999
VARBUSINESS via NewsEdge Corporation :
With the complexity of the enterprise ever
increasing at the corporate level, and the
needs of carriers evolving on the high end,
VARs have an opportunity to help customers
implement emerging technologies.
"Although things are moving to the switching
market, the router market is definitely
booming," says Scott Woodland, president of
Millennium Solutions Group, a VAR in Rocklin,
Calif. "We often act as consultants in
emerging technologies such as VPN, ADSL,
DSL and multiservice protocol."
The Internet is a key factor in the router
market, as corporate customers look to
leverage the public infrastructure for voice
over data and create VPNs and carriers to
implement higher bandwidth solutions.
"There is a great deal more leveraging of the
global IP network and the Internet, for both
private-to-private and business-to-business
communications, " says Gordon Saussy, vice
president of marketing at Ericsson IP
Infrastructure, Silver Spring, Md.
Router manufacturers are considering how
Internet services should fit into their product
agendas. "With the migration to IP has come
the opportunity for a new generation of
IP-focused routers," says Karen Barton, vice
president of marketing at Xedia Corp., Acton,
Mass. "There's a new generation of business
services that needs predictability. There's
also demand for a new generation of IP
routers that is quality-of-service-enabled
and capable of delivering more predictable
performance and granularity of control. "
Says Larry Breakwell, product line manager
for Motorola Inc.'s internetworking and
networking group in Toronto: "Voice and data
convergence on the network has also hit its
stride in the past couple of years and is a
key opportunity VARs should be considering.
Many companies are paying large fees for
phone services, so converging even a small
percentage of that traffic can considerably
cut a phone bill."
Telephone companies and traditional service
providers have offered infrastructure
build-outs, but customers are looking for a
total solution.
"The VAR is evolving into a systems
integrator and is even becoming a service
provider," says Philippe Szwarc, general
manager at Nbase-Xyplex, Littleton, Mass.
VAR Niches
AT&T Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., for
example, are working together to give VARs
the chance to offer an integrated solution to
small and midsize business (SMB) customers.
"SMBs are faced with finding VARs. We
wanted to create a more explicit linkage
between the people who can provide a
solution, " says Bruce Laird, senior director of
marketing for the remote internetworks
business unit at Cisco, San Jose.
High-speed and IP solutions provide a huge
opportunity in the health care, financial and
education markets. For example, Broadband
Networks Inc., a Nbase-Xyplex VAR based in
State College, Pa., creates and maintains
high-speed data networks for education and
municipal customers.
"Unlike a typical VAR that resells products,
we package an entire architecture and
deliver a monthly service," says Tejas Vashi,
data communications product manager at
Broadband.
The Internet has also influenced the
featureset users are looking for. Multiprotocol
support tops the list of features. "These
routers need the ability to handle serial, IP,
IPX and IBM protocols, and unique and
legacy protocols," says Motorola's Breakwell.
Users and resellers alike are also demanding
more robust reporting and management tools.
"Excellent configuration and reporting
capabilities are influencing buyers," says
Mary Jane Gruninger, vice president of
engineering at Nbase-Xyplex.
Scalability and security are also important.
Customers want to know that the hardware
they buy will continue to meet their needs
into the future. |
