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Technology Stocks : Extreme Networks, Inc. (EXTR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A.L. Reagan who wrote (552)	2/13/2001 8:25:06 PM
From: A.L. Reagan	Respond to of 770

And here's a follow-up, same publication, different writer: Carrier, enterprise vendors all dash toward the same goal By DAVID ROHDE The Edge, 02/09/01 There's probably no greater indication of the importance of the juncture between the enterprise and public network than the number of vendors crossing over from one side to the other. Last time, we discussed the move by Vina Technologies, a maker of integrated-access devices for the customer premise, into central office equipment. Now let's look at two others coming from different sides of the aisle and meeting up in the burgeoning arena for high-speed LAN extensions over Very high bit-rate DSL, or VDSL, copper loops. Extreme Networks is a vendor that made its mark in the enterprise technology called Gigabit Ethernet. It's not quite right to say that Extreme is now moving into the carrier space. That's because they're already there with their Alpine metro-area switch, and personally I've seen Extreme switches in multiple collocation and multi-tenant unit buildouts. But what's fascinating about what Extreme is doing now is that it wants to be a true service-provider vendor utilizing the most common of legacy telco standards, notably T-1 and T-3, as well as our new best friend DSL. Extreme is in the process of bringing out new WAN modules for the Alpine switch that push Ethernet extensions out over copper circuits. As Extreme CEO Gordon Stitt has said: "Some places just can't get fiber." VDSL, where it can be deployed (usually with a limit of 4,000 feet), is meant to give network managers up to a full 10M bit/sec Ethernet extension where telco or private copper wiring connects buildings, and a fiber buildout is financially or logistically infeasible. To get a complete analysis by Network World staff writer Phil Hochmuth on Extreme's strategy, see this story we published in our Jan. 22 print edition, "Extreme looks to put Ethernet in the last mile." And then this follow-up story on our Web site, with complete specs and pricing for Extreme's new T-1, T-3 and VDSL modules. Meanwhile, venerable service-provider vendor Telco Systems says it wants to go the other way, burrowing from the carrier side back into the enterprise. And why not? Telco Systems, now a unit of Israeli-based BATM Systems, has an Ethernet workgroup switch called the EdgeLink T5 Compact. It's a non-blocking 10/100 Ethernet workgroup switch with dual gigabit Ethernet uplinks. Also to be aimed at enterprise is the EdgeLink T4, a non-blocking workgroup switch with Gig-E uplinks and supporting VDSL. Telco Systems has already made a heavy commitment to VDSL with what it originally called its CopperMax switch for service providers, which we wrote about in December: Finding a home for VDSL gear You should know that Telco since found out that the name CopperMax was taken by a maker of DSL line-test equipment, and to avoid a trademark dispute, renamed the box the EdgeLink V24S. At a press/analyst breakfast at ComNet, Telco Systems president Dave LeBeau and his deputies repeatedly compared their company's legacy for CO-class reliability against newer rivals, mentioning in a disparaging way Cisco, Extreme, Foundry and Cabletron spinoff Riverstone. They did this so much that it came across as the same kind of chip on a shoulder that I've heard from PBX vendors and other Bell-oriented vendors faced with losing share to companies born in the packet-network revolution. I'd suggest to Telco Systems that it lose the resentful attitude. In its own way, it's on the same right path as Extreme - even if they're coming from different extremes, pardon the pun - in trying to make broadband wide-area networking ubiquitous over both fiber and copper. If Telco Systems wants somebody to compare themselves favorably against, how about Lucent? They bought Gigabit Ethernet start-up Prominet a few years ago, seemed to bury it in layers of bureaucracy and starve it of a marketing presence, and then stuck the Prominet Cajun line with its "enterprise" spin-off, Avaya, just as Ethernet was becoming a carrier issue. Now how's that for bad timing? nwfusion.com