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Technology Stocks : Network Appliance -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Short A. Few who wrote (9334)	10/22/2001 7:49:53 AM
From: riposte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10934

BellSouth Dives Into Gig E, Storage With an announcement this week that it would offer gigabit Ethernet, storage services and voice-enabled services, BellSouth puts its weight behind three technologies that until now have largely been the domain of niche players. Gig E, initially offered by startups like Telseon and Yipes, offers data rates as high as 100 Mbps throughout a metro area at significantly lower prices than carriers typically charge for traditional frame relay and TDM alternatives. So isn't BellSouth worried about cannibalizing its frame relay and T-3 business? The net effect will be positive, says BellSouth senior vice president of strategy and market development Chris Parsons: "The onus is on us to educate our sales force. Service level agreements are more stringent for traditional services." Although gig E is primarily known for its cost saving potential, its local area network-like architecture makes it relatively easy for a carrier to let one attached user communicate with another, facilitating potential communities of interest. That's another capability BellSouth expects to leverage, Parsons says, adding that BellSouth already delivers such an offering to some school districts. That capability also could make the service well suited for exchanging traffic between Internet providers, a capability Parsons says the company is exploring for its Florida-based network access point. Initially, BellSouth will offer gigabit Ethernet service in Atlanta, but has plans to add several other markets soon. BellSouth's storage offering introduces some new jargon, including storage enabled network (SEN) and storage point of presence (SPOP). The idea behind the SEN, says Parsons, is that "storage is not an add-on but a key component of our core network." Adds Parsons, "We see our role as local service provider moving from data transport to data [management]. This is broader than NAS [network-attached storage] or SAN [storage area networks]. The network itself becomes storage-enabled." BellSouth initially will deliver storage services from storage-equipped data centers-or SPOPs-in Atlanta and Miami, but plans to offer them in additional markets where demand merits. The company's offering will differ somewhat from that of data center operators such as Exodus Communications that have been the main players in storage services until now. Rather than having business customers co-locate their servers in the data center, BellSouth will use its own servers to support the offering. One of the limitations of the SAN protocol is that it was not designed to travel beyond a campus network. But that limitation could create an advantage for incumbent LECs like BellSouth-if, as BellSouth plans, the ILECs can convert existing central offices, located throughout a metropolitan region, into storage POPs. Parsons adds that SPOPs also can provide data backup for business customers and eventually could support consumer offerings such as video on demand or DSL-based document management. The first such consumer offerings to be delivered from BellSouth's SPOPs are several voice-enabled services, which the company will provide through a partnership with BeVocal. Such services enable consumers to dial a toll-free number and receive sports scores, driving directions, and the like in response to voice commands. Initially these services were offered directly to end users by startup companies including BeVocal and competitors such as Hey Anita and Tell Me. BellSouth's offering will provide similar capabilities and will enable consumers to have email messages read to them. The company also will work with corporate customers to voice-enable their call centers as a more cost-effective alternative to interactive voice response systems. But BellSouth's ultimate plan for the technology may be more grandiose. The company plans to conduct trials of "voicetone" service, which would replace conventional dial-tone with a voice-enabled platform that would automatically dial the appropriate number when users say, "call Mom." Developers of voice-enabled technology have hinted for some time that their platforms could mesh well with IP telephony, perhaps using a packet-based solution to replace the circuit connection into the 800-number. Is anything along those lines in BellSouth's plans? The only thing Paul Wilson, BellSouth director of business development, will say is, "There will be a lot of interesting things we will do with BeVocal. There are a lot of opportunities with the technology that wouldn't use circuit [connections]." - Joan Engebretson URL: americasnetwork.com