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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jach who wrote (23693)	3/16/1999 1:56:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

don't you ever stop hammering ? What's your problem anyway? Paranoia?

To: jach who wrote (23693)	3/16/1999 10:04:00 AM
From: John Stichnoth	Respond to of 77400

OFF TOPIC-- Jach, I would prefer to reply by private message, but you haven't set your profile up to let us do so. Can you change that, please, so we don't have to clutter the thread with off topic items? Second, please read the posts before putting up yours. Repeating a magazine article that has already been presented is a waste of your and our time. As a wise man once said, repetition doesn't make something more true. Thanks, JS

To: jach who wrote (23693)	3/17/1999 1:29:00 AM
From: jach	Respond to of 77400

Competitions coming on strong. Will likely take significant mkt share from CSCO. imo -------------------------------------------- Switch Vendors Detail Enhancements (03/16/99, 2:03 p.m. ET) By John Fontana , InternetWeek While the testimonials pour in for Layer 4 switching's load-balancing capabilities, IT managers are soon going to start hearing about innovation at other layers of the stack. Foundry Networks unveiled Monday the newest software enhancements to its ServerIron load-balancing switch that will allow it to switch packets based on URLs at Layer 7, direct traffic over geographically distributed servers, and add intelligence to caching devices. Later this week, Nortel Networks will announce similar features as part of three load-balancing switches it plans to introduce. Nortel is reselling the products from IPivot, which makes a stand-alone load-balancing device called Intelligent Broker. Server switch vendor Alteon Networks has already announced its intention to upgrade its AceSwitch 180 with URL and global redirection features. For its part, IPivot this week is announcing upgrades to its device that will be incorporated into the Nortel offerings. The key enhancement is bi-directional switching, which lets the device monitor responses to server requests and ensure error messages are not sent back to end users. The feature, according to IPivot officials, is particularly important for e-commerce applications. Switching packets based on Layer 7 information, most notably, the URL data available at that level, lets IT managers better manage server-based applications. The switches allow traffic to be managed on a session-by-session basis. Server requests also can be redirected to cache servers or live servers, in the case of dynamic content requests. The technology will expand to include policy-based networking controls where the switch can make decisions based on the source address of a request and assign a bandwidth allocation or security control. Foundry is laying the foundation for such innovation with its Internet IronWare software, which runs on its ServerIron switches. The software adds Layer 7 URL switching, symmetric load balancing that lets two switches work together, global traffic redirection, security against cracker attacks, and transparent cache switching. All the upgrades will be shipped by June, according to Foundry. "If you look just at the Layer 4 market, these announcements look like the completion of the strategy," said Bobby Johnson, CEO of Foundry. "But it is an integration story overall with our core BigIron switches." Johnson said Foundry later this year will reveal an initiative to build a new type of VPN that can set up tunnels between sets of users or servers, or between users and servers. "We will enable added security, accounting, QoS, and guaranteed server access," said Johnson. Not to be left out, Nortel on Wednesday is unveiling its Accelar 740, 750, and 790 load-balancing switches. The 740 is a Layer 4 switch, the 750 adds URL switching capabilities and the 790 adds a global redirection feature. "This technology speaks to the reliability of transactions," said Basil Alwan, vice president and general manager of the enterprise-products division at Nortel. And it's that reliability that will likely appeal to IT managers who are setting up Web-based applications and e-commerce on their intranets, extranets, and the Internet. "As the Internet, intranets, and the Web grows with content, multiple-server applications, and corporate distribution centers, it increases the need to optimize availability of those deployments and that's the value of this technology," said Johnson.