5/98 CommIntl article. Remote Possibilities [British Telecom/ASND info]
Excerpt: "The BT staffer simply dials into one of four BTRA points of presence around the country. These are populated by Ascend Max 4000 multiprotocol WAN switches, and the user is transparently connected to BT's data networks just as if they were a node on a local LAN," said Ian Yeadon, BTRA project manager. He added, "We are already working on the next phase of the project which will include improved international access."
totaltele.com
A P P L I C A T I O N S
Remote possibilities
It is said that distributed computer systems will change the
ways that businesses work. However, as Paul Gannon reports,
things are proceeding at a snail's pace
Business is about controlling risk and few things can be more hazardous than to
turn a company upside-down for the sake of trendy but unproven technologies.
Thus, while pundits wax lyrical about the emergence of the virtual enterprise, real
businesses are putting together the base elements, such as remote access
communications, security technology and team-based software applications,
which will form a firm foundation of a future virtual enterprise.
Analysts are on their side and argue that while the Internet and distributed
computer systems undoubtedly will transform the ways many businesses operate,
it won't be for some time yet. As Margaret Hopkins, joint author of a new study
on Extracting Value from the Internet published by Analysys, says: "There is a
great deal of discussion and speculation about the transformations that the
Internet will bring - but so far little has actually happened.
"Amazon.com, which has used the Web to create 'the world's biggest bookstore'
and to reach a global market, may well be the future of book retailing. But there
are no fewer bookstores because of it - at least not yet."
The technologies necessary to the creation of a virtual enterprise have hitherto
been expensive, proprietary and of limited availability; and companies have
needed compelling reasons to introduce them. The result has been that real
virtual enterprises are rare and exotic creatures.
Nevertheless, many businesses are, perhaps unwittingly, moving towards future
virtuality simply by increasing the numbers of their mobile workforce, setting up
remote call centres or by deploying videoconferencing systems.
The process is likely to accelerate as Internet-based technologies show more
businesses how they might use IT to change the way in which they operate. This
is particularly true of remote access technologies which are now becoming both
inexpensive and easy to install. And, simultaneously, telecomms, computer and
software suppliers have products to allow corporations, large and small, to set
up the distributed applications necessary to create a virtual enterprise.
Catching up with Uncle Sam
Today the US leads in teleworking, but the UK and Scandinavia are catching up.
For example, Telia, the Swedish PTO, has done a deal with Fujitsu to use its
TeamWare Intranet Security Server (TWISS) software to target the teleworking
market using IP tunnelling technology
British Telecom (BT) has one of the UK's largest mobile and remote
workforces. About 10,000 of its 130,000 staff work away from BT sites and offices. The company plans to double this number and is installing sophisticated multi-protocol remote access equipment to provide enough capacity for such a massive mobile communications load.
The British Telecom Remote Access (BTRA) system connects remote or mobile
staff to BT's intranet and central site applications via analogue, ISDN and GSM
services, and ensures them the same security and ease of access that would be
available in any central headquarters.
Home and away
For example, field engineers at customer sites anywhere in the UK can access
fault diagnosis systems resident on a powerful central computer. They can also
use the BTRA network and system to trouble-shoot and fault-find from their
homes.
Other users include sales representatives and directory enquiry staff who work
from their own homes over ISDN lines.
"The BT staffer simply dials into one of four BTRA points of presence around the country. These are populated by Ascend Max 4000 multiprotocol WAN switches, and the user is transparently connected to BT's data networks just as if they were a node on a local LAN," said Ian Yeadon, BTRA project manager. He added, "We are already working on the next phase of the project which will include improved international access."
A major UK company, British Airways, is, by its very nature a distributed
organisation. It has 4,000 worldwide users of its virtual enterprise system. They
are sited at hundreds of different offices and all need to access common systems.
BA uses Focus from Information Builders to link thousands of PCs to
mainframes and RS6000 processors with a common GUI interface across
hundreds of different applications. The next step will be to look at possibilities for
teleworking.
Cutting traffic
Research indicates that 30% of city traffic could be reduced if all organisations
took up working methodologies that reduce current travel levels. Assessing
the Impact of Advanced Telecommunications on Work-Related Travel by
the UK Home Office Partnership demonstrates that significant corporate
resources would be saved, and exhaust emission pollution would be cut,
without any reduction in business efficiency.
The study, which focused on an office with 2,400 staff, showed that the
introduction of a range of services including e-mail, video- conferencing,
e-commerce and teleworking, could cut travel by up to 3.4 million kilometres
a year.
According to Alan Denbigh, of the UK Teleworking Association, BT estimates
that it can save up to œ1,000 (US$1,600) per worker, even after funding all the
necessary PCs, communications devices and remote access processing facilities.
The more mobile that a workforce becomes, the more profound are the
knock-on effects at the remaining 'traditional' office sites. This is particularly true
of the design, scope and management of the computer and communications
systems, as they start to become more complex and more distributed.
Light at the end of the tunnel
John Lane, director of IT at the Pagoda consultancy estimates that, "By 2005, a
quarter of all companies expect that more than 50% of their office space will be
set aside to support team activity rather than individuals."
Hopkins of Analysys points out that the average size of companies has fallen.
Thus, today, small organisations with computer and comms technologies can do
much more than the biggest companies of 40 years ago could ever manage
without information technology. Basically, IT lets companies focus on their core
value-added functions.
To be successful then, remote access technology must be able to support small
and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which do not have high levels of technical
expertise. This is where IP tunnelling comes in.
Using IP tunnelling techniques, companies can easily set up 'virtual private networks' using local Internet service providers (ISPs). When that is done, a remote worker or branch office can dial into the nearest ISP - at the cost of a local call - and be connected over the Internet to the company's central LAN.
Such a development makes sense as ISPs are effectively remote access service providers - taking analogue, ISDN and other protocols from different users and turning them into IP data for onward transmission over the Internet backbone.What is more, ISPs are providing the remote access services that the PTOs should be offering.
The potential for this form of remote networking is huge. The bugbear is that customers will keep Internet connections open to gain cheap WAN to LAN access. As a result, some ISPs have already taken steps to prevent their customers using IP tunnelling. This sort of short-sighted nonsense is incredible. It seems that the ISPs haven't got the sense to learn what others have been taught - that if they don't provide the service, someone else will.
The virtual enterprise environment will not be built as quickly as some might like,
but when it does come, distributed computer systems will link even the world's
remotest parts and change everything that went before.
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