3COM AND BUS-TECH PARTNER TO DELIVER MAINFRAME
SNA-TO-IP SOLUTIONS
SANTA CLARA, Ca. & BURLINGTON, Ma.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1997-- Alliance
to deliver industry first Gigabit to ESCON channel connection while providing scaleable SNA
migration solution to
IP-based networks 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS) and Bus-Tech Inc. today announced a
co-marketing agreement that will result in solutions providing high-speed LAN connectivity to
SNA and TCP/IP mainframes. The new solution will allow for the continued migration of legacy
IBM SNA environments to contemporary IP-based networks. Bus-Tech and 3Com plan to be
the first to connect the fastest LAN technology, Gigabit Ethernet, to the fastest mainframe
channel technology (ESCON) and have agreed to exchange technologies to enhance existing
product lines. By deploying 3Com networking technologies and Bus-Tech channel solutions,
customers can build networks which support traditional access and web-based access to
mainframe applications through a single controller in the data center.
Under the terms of the agreement, 3Com will co-market Bus-Tech's NetShuttle
Intranet-to-Mainframe product line as part of their portfolio for data center connectivity
solutions. This offering expands upon 3Com's leadership and expertise in building transport
networks that consolidate legacy protocols and multiprotocol traffic onto a single network. The
Bus-Tech NetShuttle offering has standardized on 3Com's industry leading high performance
Network Interface Cards (NICs) and combines Bus-Tech leadership in high performance
channel-attachment cards, and industry leading gateway software from both IBM and
Microsoft. This solution allows for users to offload the channel-attachment to a dedicated
controller providing high mainframe performance which is not degraded by other tasks such as
routing table updates and compression duties. This also allows for much higher performing local
access to the mainframe for tasks such as the downloading of data to ther file servers in the
data center. This can be accomplished across a switched network infrastructure without adding
to the overhead of a router with a channel-attachment. "Customers are looking for a solution
which preserves their investment in mainframe applications and legacy devices while enabling
access to a new classes of web-based users," said Chandy Nilakantan, 3Com vice president and
general manager. "3Com can build an integrated network infrastructure which delivers access to
all applications across the enterprise based on 3Com's award-winning TranscendWare
technology. By partnering with Bus-Tech, 3Com is extending its policy of total customer support
to supply a true end-to-end solution from workstation to mainframe."
According to Al Brandt, vice-president and general manager of Bus-Tech's NetShuttle products,
"We are very excited about the significance of this relationship as it further expands our close
relationship with 3Com, our traditional network interface provider for NetShuttle. Our
NetShuttle product line for connecting Intranets to Mainframes scales from simple TCP/IP
Passthrough to complex SNA services and is the perfect platform solution for integrating leading
edge technology from 3Com, Microsoft and IBM." Products to Meet Needs of Enterprise
Customers The 3Com/Bus-Tech alliance delivers connectivity from legacy- and TCP/IP-based
networks to mainframe applications. An example of this market is the World Wide Web
(WWW)-to-host gateway market that is estimated by IDC to grow to $1 billion by the year
2001. The solutions delivered from the 3Com/Bus-Tech partnership are expected to include: --
Web-browser access to mainframe applications -- Native SNA access to mainframe
applications -- Native IP access to mainframe applications -- TCP/IP processing offload from
mainframe
New solutions resulting from the partnership include support for Gigabit Ethernet and Token
Ring in Fast Ethernet (TIF) LAN access to 17Mbps ESCON and Bus & Tag channel
connections. With the growing need for higher speed networks, Gigabit Ethernet is evolving into
the most prevalent LAN backbone technology in the industry. Customers will be able to install
high performance 3Com switching technology for gigabit Ethernet connectivity and interface to
the mainframe on dedicated Gigabit Ethernet ports for very high performance applications. For
customers with token-ring networks, 3Com Token-Ring switching technology supports TIF
downlinks which overcome the 16Mbps limit of this technology by transporting token ring in
frames across a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet link, thereby providing these customers a high speed
network connection to the mainframe and a migration path to Fast Ethernet in the data center.
Since over 80% of corporate data are stored on the mainframe, both of these types of networks
need an efficient, high-performance channel connection (ESCON or Bus & Tag) for accessing
host data. "Mainframes now have a dual role as business-critical Intranet servers and traditional
SNA hosts," said Don Czubek, president of Gen2 Ventures, a consulting firm specializing in
SNA and enterprise Intranets. "This agreement leverages 3Com's IBM networking capabilities
by adding the high-speed mainframe access needed to support this expanding community of
mainframe users."
Other future plans include extending enterprise software suites from both IBM and Microsoft
and implementing IBM's strategic Multi-Path Channel protocol (MPC and MPC+). Bus-Tech's
NetShuttle family of plug-and-play, Intranet-to-Mainframe connectivity products will be the
platform on which these capabilities are integrated. According to Bill Duncan, IBM's
Networking Software Business Development and Strategy manager, "Our enterprise data
center customers expect and demand the robustness, reliability and extensive scalability inherent
in IBM eNetwork Communications Server for Windows NT and Host On-Demand products.
Communications Server for Windows NT provides host and integrated Web-to-host Internet
access, network integration and end-to-end connectivity solutions. These give our customers
fast and easy access to mission critical host applications, databases, and print services without
complicated and costly changes to the networkinfrastructure, applications or end user activities.
By embracing these benefits as well as IBM's strategic MPC channel protocol, the Bus-Tech
and 3Com partnership with IBM provides a very powerful Intranet-to-Mainframe connectivity
solution."
"Customers are telling us that they want to preserve their investment in legacy applications while
using Microsoft technologies to build distributed applications and Intranets as well as provide
access to corporate data," said Paul Morse, Product Manager at Microsoft. "We are pleased
that Bus-Tech and 3Com have chosen SNA Server, with its performance, security and
management features, as an integral component of their high-performance interconnect
solutions." Availability Bus-Tech's NetShuttle products are available immediately and priced
from $16,000 to $30,000 depending upon configuration. About 3Com Corp.
3Com Corporation enables individuals and organizations worldwide to communicate and share
information and resources at anytime from anywhere. As one of the world's preeminent
suppliers of data, voice and video communications technology, 3Com has delivered networking
solutions to more than 100 million customers worldwide. The company provides enterprises,
network service providers and carriers, small businesses and consumers with comprehensive,
innovative information access products and system solutions for building intelligent, reliable and
high performance local and wide area networks. For further information, visit 3Com's World
Wide Web site at 3com.com, or the press site at 3com.com
About Bus-Tech, Inc. Bus-Tech, Inc. is the industry's leading provider of state-of-the-art
connectivity solutions for the data center. The company's powerful suite of
Intranet-to-Mainframe and data movement solutions satisfy even the most rugged demands of
data processing professionals for high-bandwidth, high-performance connectivity. With more
than 12,000 installed sites worldwide, Bus-Tech is the recognized leader in the interconnect
market. With headquarters in Burlington, MA, the company is privately held with locations
around the world. For more information about Bus-Tech and its products, please visit the
Bus-Tech World Wide Web site at bustech.com, send email to info@bustech.com,
or call 800-284-3172 or 781-272-8200. 3Com and Transcend are registered trademarks of 3Com
Corporation. TranscendWare is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. Bus-Tech is a registered
trademark and NetShuttle is a trademark of Bus-Tech, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark, and
eNetwork is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM).
Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
(NASDAQ:MSFT). All other product names and trademarks belong to their respective
companies.
Copyright 1997, Business Wire. All of the releases provided by Business Wire are protected by copyright and other applicable laws,
treaties and conventions. Information contained in the releases is furnished by Business Wire's members, who are solely responsible for
their content, accuracy and originality. All reproduction, other than for an individual user's reference, is prohibited without prior written
permission.
nasdaq!
o~~~ O |
