PairGain Details Corporate Repositioning Strategy At Networld+Interop Fall '98
October 23, 1998 -- PairGain Technologies
Inc. announced, during the NetWorld+Interop
conference in Atlanta this week, the
company's move to platform-oriented end to
end solutions in order to extend its
dominance in the DSL market. With the launch
of the Avidia System, a sophisticated
integrated access concentrator, PairGain has
reached a major milestone in the drive
towards more complex networking platforms.
The shift in the long-time DSL leader's
positioning is in response to the
increasingly varied needs of a growing
customer base and a fundamental evolution in
the marketplace.
"The convergence of voice and data
communications, spurred by the varied
needs of end users and growth of the
Internet poses a complex challenge for
service providers and equipment
manufacturers. PairGain's in-depth
knowledge of ATM and IP networking,
traditional telco circuit switching, DSL and
local loop operations, along with a history
of making products that interoperate within
existing network infrastructures has allowed
us to uniquely meet this challenge,'' said
Chuck Strauch, PairGain's CEO.
Strategic Customer Benefits
PairGain's customers are benefiting
significantly from its move towards
system-oriented products. Telcos are now able
to deploy a wider range of revenue-generating
services at dramatically lower equipment
costs. In addition, PairGain's new software
tools allow these services to be provisioned
more easily and network-managed for greater
reliability.
"Being a 'systems' company means more
than simply designing and manufacturing
system-level products,'' said Strauch. "We
understand our customers' business issues and
are responding by delivering comprehensive
solutions, that is, a combination of
hardware, software and service offerings.
This will mean that a higher percentage of
PairGain's future revenue will come from
software products, platforms and value added
services, such as training and support, over
individual boxes, or 'plugs','' he continued.
The Avidia Platform
The Avidia System is an integrated access
concentrator that is based on a fully
distributed ATM, packet and circuit switched
architecture. It combines the redundancy,
scaleability and quality of service support
required in carrier networks and includes
support for a wide range of service options,
including full-rate DMT ADSL, G.lite, SDSL,
T1, E1 and frame relay.
The Avidia System commences a high
level of hardware and software integration
for PairGain. The platform supports a wide
range of network interface options, includes
complex internetworking functions and is
network-managed by an HP Openview-based
application, Avidia IQ. Under software
control, the Avidia System can be configured
as a DSLAM, an access server or a LAN
extension concentrator.
"Customers want products that have more
options, provide more functions and can
be completely managed, all on a single
platform. We developed the Avidia System in
direct response to those needs,'' said Howard
Flagg, PairGain's president.
Other PairGain Platforms
In addition to the company's Avidia
platform solution, PairGain has developed an
industry-standard 3190-based T1 access
platform. The HiGain Wideband System 3190
combines traditional HDSL transmission
functionality with DS-3 multiplexing all from
a fully-managed, standard 3192 shelf. The
primary benefits of deploying PairGain's
Wideband System 3190 include lower cross
connect port costs, total backward
compatibility, minimal field training and
lower operating costs. These benefits are
critical to PairGain's many telco customers
as its HiGain systems are the industry's most
widely deployed HDSL solutions.
The company's small subscriber carrier
solutions, the PG-Flex and PG-Plus, are
system-level solutions which are enjoying
wide customer acceptance, as they address the
growing requirement amongst end users for
additional phone, fax and modem lines.
PairGain's enterprise LAN platform, the
Campus family, integrates standard data,
voice and video networking via high-speed DSL
connections. The fully-featured SNMP-managed
platform, provides connectivity at speeds
over 2 Mbps with support for a variety of
enterprise applications, including LAN
bridging and routing, remote LAN connectivity
and wide area networking.
Internal Shifts
Internally, the evolution to platform
solutions has included the hiring of more
software development engineers, a keener
focus on data communications, the development
of next-generation systems management tools
and more strategic partnerships with other
systems suppliers. |
