From one bright bird
Via Yahoo.....
Nothing has changed, really!
by: KaKatheCackatoo
10/31/1999 9:32 am EST
Msg: 18447 of 18452
MRV Communications sees itself as consisting of three arms:
1) The optical products arm, focussing on high-end optical components. A (non-strategical) part of this division
(about 20-30% as I understood) will be spun off under the name Optical Access and IPO'd to raise a lot of
money and interest. And as they say, to increase shareholder value. Although nobody is entirely sure what that
means.
Optical Access has established deals in FTTC deployment and has a number of OEM contracts with most of the
optical networking giants. It will manufacture and sell
- long reach optical products (incl. Single Fibre WDM) for ISP and enterprise,
- residential access equipment and
- triplexers for cableTV/ telephone companies
It has the capacity to grow several hundreds of percents without any additional infrastructure investments and has
state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. (BTW: Something as MRV Research must exist too, though we never
hear about it. Encountered that one in Lightwave.)
Many of its products are also deliverables to the other arms, e.g. the SFF transceivers for Optiswitch etc. and
the other arms provide integrated connectivity solutions for the categories above.
MRV sees it as "synergies of a vertically integrated organisation".
2) The Networking arm: sometimes they talk about three data networking divisions (presumably Nbase-Xyplex,
Red Sea Networks and Zuma Networks) and sometimes they refer to the networking arm as Nbase-Xyplex and
its subdivisions.
Anyway, it is clear that they are experimenting with new business models in order to shorten development times
and time-to-market by creating virtual companies inside the lap of Nbase-Xyplex. The main constant is that
funding is internal and that manufacturing and sales/support network is Nbase-Xyplex. R&D and manufacturing
are done in California, Boston and Israel. Large-scale integration tests are in the PISTOL lab in Boston, where
also the main Sales/Support infrastructure is to be found.
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Nbase-Xyplex itself provides three types of solutions:
A) "Optical Systems & Network Enhancement" contains the successful Fiberdriver (managed optical
infrastructure) family and the award winning Wireless Traffic driver, which is currently in latest stage of
development and will probably be OEM'd by a networking giant (the latter is just a speculation of mine). Another
product in this line is the Accelerouter, a product to enhance existing network solutions with zero effort and
minimal cost.
B) High speed enterprise solutions from the NH2064 layer II switch -extended with Optiswitch lately- (midrange
switch serving as workgroup switch and fiber-to-the-desk switch, will be succeeded by the NH3024 in Q1
2000) to the GFS-3016 backbone switch with CWDM or low cost DWDM (backbone switching for power
users, Campus networks, MANs).
I was told that these products will keep on generating the revenue for Nbase -Xyplex, together with the Fiber
Driver until the new products catch on.
The next generation switch-router is the OSR-8040, well known for its open architecture and Linux OS, aimed
to penetrate at universities and other non-profit ISPs, initially in a modest 2-unit form and the application
software will be distributed freely. In fact the "open routing" means "supporting BSD, Linux, NT, Unix and any
pre-existing routing platform". It is a logical evolution, springing from the rise of Network Processor chips
(MMCN, Level One, C-Port, IBM, …). NBase-Xyplex is not alone in there, but Linux sounds hot and is a sign
for "attacking the established order".
The next step is the "Z16 Network Supercomputing Switch Router" from Zuma Networks.
C) WAN and Remote Access products. Currently NBase-Xyplex has existing solutions from the SOHO
Routerunner over the Branch office Network 3000 to the enterprise Network9000 (multifunction routing hub)
solution.
Extended with the MaxServer, Edgeblaster and Edgeguardian for RAS, WAN and VPN.
Totally new is the Red Sea Networks Red-C OSS system. Imitating Redback, but outperforming all current
SMS systems, with the a lot of extra functions for service providers and enterprises at various levels (service
management, capacity, security, VoIP, …) . Very promising.
3) The third arm are the start-ups. All of them received initial funding by MRV, but the second round is open for
other investors.
A) New Access, the most promising, is in the most advanced stadium. It has an unique and recognised solution
for Dynamic DWDM in Metropolitan rings and works straight towards IP over DWDM.
It has attracted powerful investors and is likely to become a huge success.
B) Hyperchannel, a business to business e-commerce success story in Europe. Another IPO candidate. Known
by all networking giants and of course an Nbase-Xyplex distributor.
C) Charlotte's Web Networks, aiming at the terabit router market. Looks technically very attractive, but still in
design stage right now. Integration and Testing stage will probably start when the company moves to Boston.
If everything works out well, the product will play in the major league.
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The previous pages are a neutral to biased summary of a 1.5 year period of "MRVC" watching from a
shareholder/ technology watcher/ engineer point of view.
Some of it may be incorrect and I hereby encourage anyone to respond and rectify.
It is mainly based on the reporting work of several individuals on Internet message boards, industry publications,
comparison of MRV products to their competition, the MRV web-site, a visit to Nbase-Xyplex at Telecom99
and the Nbase-Xyplex CD-ROM.
Personally, I see no reason for panic but at the contrary a lot of potential in this company. The first real result will
probably start to show in Q2 2000. Their business plan is extremely focussed: becoming the optical CSCO. Or
as they say it themselves: a technology powerhouse. They've got a long way to go! Looks impossible, competing
with the Lucents, Nortels, Siemens', Ericssons and Cisco's of the world, not mentioning all superhyped IPO
start-ups, but that's an investing risk I am willing to take. Together with a growing hurdle of others it seems. If
even 20% of their ambition comes true, MRV will be a giant.
Given the broad target (from user to backbone) and the ultimately ambitious, multinational and independent
attitude of this company, we know it won't be easy, but the rewards could be huge.
If not, hey, I will have tripled my money anyway!
Regards,
KK2 (on a mountain, together with Eternal Optimist, the Dalai Lama and JiangZebub)
PS: Next time we count on MRVC to draw the complete and correct organisational chart.
Does anyone plan to go to the shareholder meeting? As Noam suggested via cmg on SI, I have a bunch of very
concrete questions for them!
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