Steel Head welds routing to NT
Microsoft is aiming to give Windows NT Server users "COST-EFFECTIVE" and comprehensive wide-area routing capabilities via a software upgrade.
Steel Head, due out in the second quarter of this year for NT Server 4.0 and 5.0 is expected to give smaller corporations a less expensive alternative to purchasing separate router devices to route traffic between a LAN and WAN, according to beta users of the software. Currently, Windows NT enables corporations to route traffic between their LANs only.
Steel Head will support 10/100Mbps Ethernet and Token Ring Lan technologies, as well as asynchronous transfer mode,FDDI,ISDN,Frame Relay and X.25 wide-area connections, said a beta tester. The software is expected to rival more expensive standalone router devices, such as Cisco Systems high-end 7500 router. Cisco's hardware, when fully configured, can cost far more than $100,00.
One of the advantages of integrating a software-based router product in the NT operating system is management, the beta tester added.In addition to supporting IP and IPX traffic, the software includes buit-in SNMP network management and remote monitoring capabilities.Officials at Micosoft refused to comment on unannounced products, saying only that the company is preparing router enhancements.
"We are continually upgrading services in NT, and that means file and print services and routing," said Enzo Sciano, Microsoft group product manage for Windows NT Server.
This is what I know. Microsoft hooked up with Fore Systems to get the ATM technology and Cisco Systems for the routing. I thought the Fore Systems management were smart. It was a dumb move if you ask me. Suppose to be partnership deals. But if you know thy enemy Microsoft generally steals the other companies technology and goes it alone. The partnership company always gets ripped off in the end.
Bill Gates treats business like a war battle and his favourite hero is Napoleon.
So it is their own fault if the partnership company hands over their technology to Microsoft on a silver platter and wonders why they were duped.
Bill Gates is projecting to do a $1 billion in sales for NT. People can rubbish the Microsoft networking technology at their own peril. I've heard that story before - that
it is "useless, the "technology is crap" "no good etc."
But Microsoft has the best software programmers in the business. They only need to get an inside look of a (underneath the hood) rival companies technology and can usually reverse engineer it. MSFT can fight the legal battles in court later. Apple, Novell, CTXS is the latest casualty. And like the Duracell bunny they keep going and going and going... coming back and back improving their technology every time until it is just as good or better.
All these mergers in the networking industry make sense end. This is the only industry that I know of that it is so fragmented. Businesses want to buy the "Total package."
Any company spending millions of dollers on capital expenditure to upgrade equipment in planes, cars, ships and computers suddenly finds when it come to netwoking, that it has to buy separate components if it wants the complete solution.
Intel has already made its intentions known. I wonder if Microsoft is thinking the same.That this is another cash cow industry to move into. Some of these networking companies are going to fall by the wayside if they don't merge.
I wanna know if this gonna affect my beloved Cascade Systems at the Frame Relay level. Comments please. |
