2/2/98 Computer Reseller News 63
1998 WL 2189800
Computer Reseller News
Copyright 1998 CMP Publications Inc.
Monday, February 2, 1998
774
Features:Remote Access
Routing All Calls Through One Point Of Access
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Ascend Communications, 3Com and Cisco Systems will roll out new access
concentrators and face added competition in a market growing 50 percent
annually
Daniel Lyons
Competition is heating up in the remote-access market, and VARs stand
to benefit from a slew of new products later this year that will bring
better performance and lower prices to the market.
The so-called "Big Three" remote-access vendors-3Com Corp., Ascend
Communications Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.-all will introduce new access
concentrators this year.
Meanwhile, other networking vendors such as Bay Networks Inc. and
Cabletron Systems Inc., which traditionally have not been big players in
remote access, are launching new assaults on the market. Lucent
Technologies Inc. also joins the fray through its acquisition of
Livingston Enterprises Inc., now known as Lucent's Remote Access
Business Unit.
Those vendors are being drawn in by projections from market
researchers such as Dataquest Inc., which estimates the market for
remote-access concentrators will grow more than 50 percent annually for
the next several years, with prices per-port dropping at a rate of 12
percent per year. The biggest market for access concentrators will be
the 4,000 or so Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United States,
said Craig Johnson, principal analyst at Dataquest, based in San Jose,
Calif.
The good news for VARs is that networking vendors recognize their best
route to reach ISPs is through resellers. "All of the vendors are
looking for qualified VARs to help them expand their coverage. Qualified
VARs who can sell into this market are in a very good position, and it's
going to get even better," Johnson said.
Not only will VARs have vendors fighting over them, they also will be
able to choose from among a new generation of products that make life
easier for resellers by integrating technologies that previously had to
be bought separately. Technologies for tunneling, virtual private
networks (VPNs), encryption, bandwidth management, firewall security and
routing will start to show up in a single hardware platform rather than
in separate boxes.
The new servers also open new opportunities for resellers. While
first-and second-generation products supported only text-based
applications such as E-mail and Web-based applications such as Web
browsing, the new generation of access servers enables advanced
multimedia-based applications such as virtual network tunneling, data
encryption and network conferencing for a large number of concurrent
connections.
[For Gary(not Korn):
One such product is the the AS5300 remote-access server from Cisco,
San Jose.
Cisco made strong inroads with a new "next-generation" access
concentrator and is appealing to ISPs and large enterprise customers
with the promise of providing an "end-to-end" networking solution of
which remote access is only one component.
Maximum configuration on the AS5300 is 96 ports, at $468 per port,
bringing the total price to about $45,000. "That's the best pricing in
the market," said Tim McShane, director of product marketing for access
servers at Cisco.
The AS5300 leapfrogged other products in the market in terms of
functionality and performance and helped Cisco take share away from
other companies, the vendor said. "From 1996 to the third quarter of
1997, we went from having very little, almost negligible, market share
to having a market share in the high teens," McShane said. "We're
feeling very good about the trajectory."
The company most threatened by Cisco's new onslaught is 3Com, Santa
Clara, Calif., if only because it currently is a top player in the
market, with 36 percent of shipments and 40 percent of revenue,
according to Dataquest.
3Com owes its presence in the remote-access market to its merger with
U.S. Robotics, whose Total Control product line traditionally has been a
market leader.
3Com recently integrated the Total Control technology into its
SuperStack II platform, creating a stackable remote-access solution with
a $350-per-port price point. The new SuperStack II Remote Access 3000
system comes in a base configuration with 24 ports and can be expanded
with extra 24-port modules as a company's needs grow.
"With this product, we're reaching a part of the market that no other
manufacturer is hitting-the midsize company," said Kathleen Marini,
product marketing manager at 3Com. "It allows a company to
cost-effectively implement remote access at the port count they need."
Price for the Remote Access 3000 concentrator is $7,495. A router for
the concentrator is $2,995. An optional redundant power supply costs
$2,995.
Chasing 3Com for the market-leading position is Ascend Communications,
in Alameda, Calif., which has 33 percent of ports shipped and 30 percent
of revenue, according to Dataquest.
Not long ago, Ascend had the remote-access market more or less to
itself. Now, however, the company finds itself facing ever more intense
competition.
"The market has become very crowded," said Kurt Bauer, vice president
of access product management at Ascend. "The business has exploded, and
all sorts of new players have come along."
Ascend sells a range of remote-access products-from the low-end 200
Plus, which supports eight concurrent users and costs less than $3,000,
up to the carrier-class MAX TNT WAN-access switch, which can support
thousands of concurrent sessions. At the heart of the product line is
the MAX 4048, which was released early last year and supports up to 48
ports. [Korn: Not much here on new ASND products,like the DSLTNT]
Bay Networks, Santa Clara, offers a high-end carrier-class product
called the Model 5399 Remote Access Concentrator, which is used in the
System 5000 Multi-Service Switch. The product is the only concentrator
that can support either x2 or K56flex technologies for
56-Kbit-per-second modems. "With other vendors you have to choose one
technology over the other-your choices get limited. For our ISP
customers, this is a hugely important issue," said Rohit Mehra, Bay
Networks senior product manager.
Bay Networks strengthened its presence in the remote-networking arena
through its acquisition of New Oak Communications Inc. Within days of
the purchase, Bay Networks unveiled plans for a new remote-access
product designed for midsize companies and ISPs, the NOC 2000
extranet-access switch, which supports up to 200 concurrent remote
users.
Lucent, Murray Hill, N.J., is differentiating its PortMaster 3 product
on the basis of performance. Price-per-port is about $250, said Marty
Likier, product marketing manager. The 60-port PortMaster 3 is aimed at
small and midsize ISPs. Later this year, Lucent will introduce its
next-generation product, the PortMaster 4, which supports more than 600
ports, Likier said.
---- INDEX REFERENCES ----
COMPANY (TICKER): Ascend Communications Inc.; Cisco Systems Inc.; 3Com
Corp. (ASND CSCO COMS)
NEWS SUBJECT: World Equity Index; High-Yield Issuers (WEI HIY)
INDUSTRY: Communications Technology; Telecommunications, All (CMT TEL)
Word Count: 1011
2/2/98 COMRSNWS 63
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