Competitions coming on strong in GBit ethernet. Look at recent Lucent's addition. Very low prices that will reduce profits for everyone. Remember the disk drives and memory price wars, it's now coming soon to the networking arena. IMO, csco would be hard pressed to maintain its margins.
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Gigabit Ethernet On A Tear, Study
Reports
(03/09/99, 4:36 p.m. ET)
By John Fontana, InternetWeek
IT managers with a need for
high-performance LANs are gobbling up
Gigabit Ethernet and are likely to use it at
every level of the network, according to a
new study released Tuesday.
For IT managers with centralized server farms and a
growing number of 100-megabit-per-second desktops,
the technology is fast becoming a requirement. With the
advent of the convergence of voice and data on a single
network, the fatter pipe will become a necessity. With
that in mind, the major vendors are scrambling to add
Gigabit Ethernet ports up and down their product
lines.
"There is no doubt Gigabit Ethernet is taking off, and by
the end of this year and into 2000, it will be at all levels
of the network," said Mike McConnell, an analyst with
Infonetics Research, "even at the desktop for a small
number of users."
According to a study released Tuesday by Infonetics
called "User Plans for High Performance LANs 1999,"
Gigabit Ethernet will make up 8 percent of ports in the
enterprise backbone and 4 percent of the ports in
server farms by November 2000.
"From zero to 8 percent in about 18 months is pretty
significant," said McConnell.
The study showed Gigabit Ethernet is on a rocket ride
through the enterprise and is blowing away ATM as
the technology of choice for backbones and servers.
Pricing also is playing a part. Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet
ports have dropped $200 in the past quarter to $1,700;
port shipments climbed 153 percent between the third
and fourth quarters of last year, according to Cahners
In-Stat Group.
It is into that environment vendors are rushing to
emphasize Gigabit Ethernet support from top to bottom;
this includes recent announcements from Cisco, Nortel
Networks, 3Com, and Alcatel/Xylan.
"I think it's a wise move for these vendors to add
Gigabit Ethernet ports," said McConnell.
Meanwhile, Lucent completed on Tuesday Gigabit
Ethernet support for its Cajun line of LAN switches it
announced in October.
The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company added a new
switch to its workgroup P110 line and modules for its
M400 and M770 switches that provide multiple Gigabit
Ethernet ports.
Lucent's new stackable P118 has two Gigabit Ethernet
ports and eight 10/100 ports. Four of the units can be
stacked together or can be combined with other
switches in the P110 line that include ATM interfaces,
high-density 10/100 ports, or all fiber 100-Mbps ports.
The P118 supports 802.1p prioritization and 802.1Q
VLANs and Lucent's Open Trunk link aggregation. It
also supports SNMP and Lucent's Switch
Monitoring.
The LGE-2000 module for the M400, a chassis-based
switch that integrates Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM, has
one Gigabit Ethernet port and one redundant port. The
M2-1000 for the M770, a large format switch that
integrates ATM and Ethernet, has two Gigabit Ethernet
ports and six 10/100 ports.
"It's a necessary condition for quality of service and
voice and data integration to have enough capacity, and
Gigabit Ethernet gives us those fat pipes," said Doug
Ruby, vice president of product marketing for Lucent's
LAN switching group.
Lucent's new products are available now. The P118
pricing is $3,995 for short wavelength and $5,495 for
long wavelength. The LGE-2000 is $4,995 (short) and
$6,495 (long). The M2-1000 is $9,995 (short) and
$11,995 (long). |
