Wednesday, September 10, 1998, 11:50 a.m. ET.
Bay Outlines SNA-IP
Strategy
By CHUCK MOOZAKIS
Bay Networks on Monday will bolster its
SNA efforts by rolling out a four-phased
road map designed to let IT managers
oversee end-to-end delivery of SNA traffic
over IP networks.
Initially, Bay will roll out a variety of software
enhancements to its line of switches and
routers, including priority queuing,
end-to-end quality of service (Qos) via
Data Link Switching (DLSw) and an APPN
boundary function. Similar performance
boosts will also be added to parent
Northern Telecom's Passport 6400 switch,
enabling core network capabilities, said
Don McGinley, Bay's senior product
manager-SNA.
Subsequent products, to be spelled out
over the next six months, will support
delivery of SNA to the desktop, high-speed
host access connectivity via ATM and a
robust network management suite.
"We see a tremendous amount of growth
in the number of users accessing
mainframe data," McGinley said.
At the same time, those enterprises that
have traditionally relied on pumping
mainframe data over Token Ring networks
are moving to higher-speed topologies
such as gigabit Ethernet and ATM,
McGinley said, further fueling the demand
for SNA traffic capable of traveling through
fatter IP-centric pipes.
To meet that demand, Bay will use of its
routing and switching products-together
with the Passport 6400-to better support
SNA traffic. By adding features such as
QoS, class-of-service routing and IP
multicast with DLSw, Bay maintains it will
enable IT administrators to reduce network
overhead even as they converge their
networks to IP.
Current Analysis analyst Chris Nichol
described Bay's SNA plan as one that
"focuses them in the right direction." Once
Nortel's resources and financial clout is
added to the equation, Nichol said Bay
could very well become a "strategic buy"
when IT managers consider SNA-over-IP
options.
"Network managers have been slow to
move SNA traffic off leased lines. Bay sees
IP as a natural alternative," Nichol said.
"But IP has competency issues and Bay is
trying to address these."
Still, Nichol chided Bay for not being more
specific regarding its network management
application-now slated for delivery in Q2
1999. "They will need to come out very
quickly with a management application for
SNA. Overseeing these networks is just as
important."
Bay said products supporting its
SNA-over-IP initiative will begin shipping
later this year and extend throughout 1999
and 2000. Pricing has not been
determined. |
