Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Wagner who wrote (3082)	4/14/2001 11:33:32 PM
From: J Fieb	Respond to of 4808

Joe W., Have you read any of the math chaos books? How well do data and chaos habitate? If QoS is a goal, the gear must do policing and understand the alphabet soup of QoS protocols. If voice over IP is seen as a vital application, switches and routers must support low-latency queuing and compression techniques. On top of that, vendors must throw in load balancing, link aggregation and, perhaps, caching. Creating a platform able to carry out any combination of these tasks may mean that the day of the ASIC, at least as the sole or primary engine of a networking device, is passing. Indeed, there is a trend to upgrade existing and new switching and routing platforms with network processors. These devices can handle the increased demand for bandwidth as well as add new IP services on the fly. The trend toward intelligence, which will blossom during 2001, is already well under way. Cisco, for instance, has developed its own processor, PXF, or parallel eXpress forwarding. This processor, embedded in the Cisco 7200 router, works alongside the central processor, offloading high-performance services. IBM is set to announce a network processor for its gear, as well. Other vendors have upgraded their entire switch architectures in order to offer improved performance and flexibility. Alteon WebSystems last March introduced its virtual matrix architecture (VMA) software to boost switch capacity by making better use of resources like processors and memory. Alteon promised that VMA would offer a four-fold increase in HTTP-session performance. And the architecture change can in the form of a free download to existing customers. Alteon was acquired by Nortel Networks (stock: NT) this year. Enterprise network managers are increasingly responsible for serving information via the Internet to customers, telecommuters and business partners. But as content becomes more complex, the Internet's chaotic nature -- and IT managers' lack of direct control over QoS -- is an increasingly destabilizing factor. The problem is that more and more users of the increasingly complex enterprise content are nowhere near the enterprise. For this reason, enterprises are increasingly relying on CDNs to help deliver content and maintain QoS. Until recently, content delivery was a pricey option reserved for only the largest e-commerce providers. Within the past year, however, dozens of vendors have emerged. While increased competition bodes well for innovation and prices, content delivery still may not be the right option for everyone -- at least not now. The more important the data and sensitive and critical. (Like the genome) the more you are glad you have a SAN? I got kids and am glad they play only in the driveway and not the hiway. Any data people out there who can comment for us?