More and more competitions, another big player. First IBM, now Compaq. The products seem to be better than all the competitors including CSCO. Considering CPQ channels and VARs, it will give quite a competition to other GBit and LAN switch vendors.
==========================
February 15, 1999, Issue: 829
Section: CRN Test Center
Smart, fast Compaq gigabit switch delivers
The CRN Test Center gave its Editors' Choice award for enterprise switches
to the SW5450 Gigabit Enterprise Switch from Compaq Computer Corp.
The product outperformed other units by a wide margin and is accompanied
by a set of useful, intuitive management tools. The company's supporting
channel program makes selling the product easy and profitable.
The Test Center requested Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches that incorporate
an emerging technology still not fully deployed among such products. While
most vendors currently offer many Layer 3 capabilities, IP routing still is
unavailable in the reviewed products from 3Com Corp. and Hewlett-Packard
Co., as well as from Cisco Systems Inc. These vendors plan to incorporate
the technology this year.
And although one of the technology's earliest pioneers, the Bay Networks
division of Nortel Networks, had a qualifying product in its Accelar enterprise
switch line, the company declined to participate, citing concerns about the life
cycle of its products when competing against the newer generations of Layer 3
products from Compaq and Lucent Technologies. Nortel is working on its
next-generation Layer 3 routing switches.
In the channel, all vendors offer top programs brimming with service and
support benefits. Switch resellers are sure to enjoy full lead generation, market
development funds and a profusion of spiffs and rebates. The major difference
the Test Center found was in estimated reseller margin: Compaq's margin was
surprisingly low at 8 points to 14 points in a group that averaged about 16
points and at the high end touched 25 points. Compaq mostly shined on
technical merits.
The bottom line is that selling the Compaq product means ever more attention
to the service side of the sale-not that there is anything wrong with this, but it is
definitely something that needs to be kept in mind. Fortunately, Layer 3
switches hold the potential for resellers to offer innumerable services ranging
from initial installation and setup to periodic monitoring and performance
tune-ups.
And of course, margin is not the only channel program element to consider.
All the vendors in this roundup emphasize positioning Gigabit Ethernet
switches to midsize and large enterprises, but only a few require authorization
and certification. More vendors should require this to ensure quality installation
and service. VARs should look before they leap; all vendors but Compaq and
HP have somewhat strict reseller authorization requirements.
All four Gigabit Ethernet switches in this roundup were proven capable of
Layer 2 packet forwarding rates equal to the maximum potential for the
technology, and all did so with zero packet loss. Differences were seen in
latencies introduced by the switch while it sets up the circuits between ports.
The shortest average latency (and therefore the best) when testing 20 of its
Fast Ethernet ports and its two Gigabit Ethernet ports was offered by the
Compaq SW5450, and the longest latency was exhibited by the 3Com
CoreBuilder 9000. The Lucent Cajun P550 and HP ProCurve 8000M fell in
between.
Greater differences were observed in Layer 3 IP routing tests, where the
Compaq unit outperformed the Lucent product by a factor of about 65 times.
Specifically, the Lucent switch was 65 times slower than the Compaq switch.
To put things in perspective, even the slowest Lucent latency measurement
was only equal to about 6-thousandths of a second; the blink of an eye takes
more time than that.
Also setting products apart were management methods and software tools.
With the exception of the CoreBuilder 9000, which was still in preproduction
status when tested, all products offer browser-based access to all or most
features. The Web interface inside the Compaq unit was the most attractive,
but it did not give full functionality. Conversely, Lucent's interface to the Cajun
was less pretty but afforded access to all switch settings. All products featured
command-line interfaces (CLIs), with the nod going to HP's menu-driven CLI
and its easy-to-use tables.
VARs also should look to vendors to do some of the hard work for them. All
of the vendors in this roundup provide a gratis network design review
program. Particularly with complicated networks, the more eyes the better.
Finally, there has been talk in the industry about Compaq exiting the
networking peripherals business. Nothing could be further from the truth, said
a Compaq spokesperson. These rumors undoubtedly emerged when several
weeks ago the company realigned the products formerly in its Network
Access Communications Division to more efficiently accommodate delivery of
total solutions to IT departments. For example, switches and remote access
servers are now grouped with servers under the Enterprise Computing Group.
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SW5450 Gigabit Enterprise Switch
Price: $12,995
Company: Compaq Computer Corp.
Location: Houston
(800) 345-1518
www.compaq.com
Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc. |
