Nice IBD article on British Telecom roll-out of ASND RA equipment
British Telecom Experiments On Itself To
Hawk Networks
Date: 5/28/98
Author: Michele Hostetler
British Telecom PLC hopes that practicing
what it preaches will sell the public on a
network that plugs far-flung workers into the
company's computer system.
The London-based telecommunications titan
has been rolling out a remote- access system
for itself this year that it's co-producing with
networking firm Ascend Communications Inc.
It's one of the biggest corporate
remote-access projects in the U.K., costing
more than $1.5 million in just the embryonic
stages.
By using itself as a high-profile guinea pig,
British Telecom plans to market systems that
make it possible for a worker armed with
only a cellular phone and laptop computer to
hook up to the company network.
''Sell what you use and use what you sell,''
said Leo Hughes, British Telecom technology
manager of the remote- access project.
Remote access is one of the fastest-growing
segments of networking. Companies
increasingly demand this ability, and British
Telecom recognizes this - even though it
doesn't make remote-access hardware.
That's where Alameda, Calif.-based Ascend
comes in. Ascend is making the equipment
that British Telecom plans to sell to
corporations, and is relying on its U.K.
partner to market overseas.
Whatever success British Telecom enjoys
should rub off on Ascend and net it more
sales, says Phil Holcroft, Ascend's U.K.
business manager.
British Telecom has connected 12,500 of its
own employees in the past six months to its
new system and plans to wire in another
10,000 by year's end. In two years, 30,000
of the company's 120,000 employees will
plug into the corporate network from afar.
Many more employees are clamoring to get
hooked up, Hughes says.
''Success sells itself,'' Hughes said. The key
issue is not to be able to control demand . . .
but to have the resources as demand
increases.''
The project has squeezed out more
productivity from British Telecom employees,
Hughes says. Field engineers can use a
mobile computer and cellular phone to dial
into the main network and find out what the
next job is. They also can access detailed
information normally found only in the office.
In setting up its own system, British Telecom
had to learn a few lessons along the way. It
did manage, however, to lay groundwork in
advance that avoided many more pitfalls.
British Telecom first defined remote-access
benefits and what it wanted its system to do.
It also set realistic expectations.
The hard part came next. British Telecom
already had some remote-access equipment
in place to link several electronic-mail
systems. But those systems were of various
degrees of security and technology types,
Hughes says.
British Telecom sought to unite the disparate
systems while making them secure and
flexible, he says. There were two stages to
the first phase of the project - planning the
system and a pilot program. The process
began in the summer of '96.
British Telecom conducted test trials for six
months with Ascend's equipment, says Ian
Yeadon, manager of the company's
remote-access project.
One problem arose in putting remote-access
technology on top of existing software and
e-mail systems, which weren't linked, Hughes
says. The e- mail systems were
local-area-network based and tough to make
secure.
There was trouble on the PC side of things,
too, as the operating system became a
stumbling block. The company debated over
upgrading a number of its machines from
Windows 3.11 to Windows 95, but that
would have involved numerous hardware
improvements and logistics headaches,
Hughes says.
Still, the company needed to unify all its
computers in order to save time, Yeadon
says. Tossing the PCs wasn't an option, so
they had to upgrade.
British Telecom's remote-access program has
four sites in the U.K. where it houses
equipment.
Fifty Ascend MAX 4000 switches at those
sites connect users to British Telecom's
intranet. The two companies already are
working together to update and expand the
existing system, Yeadon says.
Working closely with an equipment supplier is
essential to a remote-access project's
success, he says.
''At the end of the day, what we're trying to
do, you couldn't buy off the shelf,'' Yeadon
said.
The $1.5 million British Telecom has spent
thus far went to upgrading the backbone
equipment over the last two years, he says.
Related costs, such as more laptops and
desktops, are budgeted by separate
departments, Yeadon says. However, the
company ended up buying several thousand
new laptops to hook up to the new system.
British Telecom is looking into contracting
with a supplier to make specially designed
laptops and desktops to connect to the
remote-access system, Hughes says.
The next step is to link British Telecom's
expanding international presence to its home
base. Safeguarding the system for workers
spread across Europe is one challenge,
Yeadon says.
There isn't a unified telephone system in
Europe, so British Telecom has to overcome
that hurdle, Yeadon says. Virtual private
networks, which use public networks but
keep private information secure, could be an
answer, he says.[Another nice opportunity for ASND]
''We've got security more or less cracked in
the U.K.,'' he said. ''But internationally we
have to make sure we've got that high degree
of security.''
(C) Copyright 1998 Investors Business Daily,
Inc.
Metadata: BTY ASND I/4811 I/3574 E/IBD E/SN1
E/TECH
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