Networking in the 21st century

The internet and internet Protocol (IP) are the real drivers in the network hardware market today, or so you might assume. But it is not as simple as that, according to Simon Boyle, marketing manager at integrator Chernikeeff Networks.

"It's true that networking is becoming increasingly IP-centric. Research points that way. But IP is rapidly becoming more complex too," says Boyle. "For example, 'multicast' is now being used to support voice over IP for conferencing and streaming applications, while internet Protocol V6 and multi-protocol label switching are both looming. Even the simple task of configuring today's quality-of-service features to support multimedia can be surprisingly complex in some environments."

Boyle claims that the technology is not getting any simpler, even though it has matured. "It is a gross generalisation to say that when most products are launched they seem complex and support-intensive, and that over time they become simple and low-support. As network integrators, our core competitive differentiation is expertise, and staying on the crest of the technology wave is really what our customers expect of us," he says.

Networking is moving fast and in many directions. There is plenty of work for the talented reseller. It would be wrong to say that IP is not having a major influence on the development of products at the present time however, but much of the network hardware development is concerned with large-scale IP infrastructures.

Alan Taylor, senior consulting engineer at IP infrastructure systems provider Juniper Networks, says the growth of the internet is driving rapid change and development as the industry works to meet the needs of service providers. "Products to address this environment have to follow a rapid innovation curve; to constantly incorporate the solutions to the problems encountered during these rapid scaling increases," he says.

In time, says Taylor, the global multi-service infrastructure will migrate towards IP. "This will be enabled in part by new-generation IP routing platforms, including traffic forwarding attributes formerly only associated with asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches such as line rate forwarding, and low and predictable latency."

The other crucial influence here is the emergence of multi-protocol label switching. This adds a circuit orientation to IP packet forwarding, allowing traffic control, service segregation and quality-of-service control, while retaining the fundamental advantages of IP's ubiquity, says Taylor.

Fibre takes off
IP developments now seem to be enfolding ATM and fibre-based technology. Both seem to have hit a brick wall recently, except in the communications sector. "Fibre is becoming a lot more cost-effective," says Boyle. "In the Wan/carrier space, IP over fibre looks as if it will replace IP over ATM and SDH/Sonnet over fibre. Dense wave division multiplexing is already delivering up to 32 channels of 2.5Gb over a single pair of fibres."

However, others say that fibre will be only a sideshow and that the real excitement will surround wireless developments. There has been much ado over the development of Bluetooth technology, and this is certain to gather momentum over the coming year. Key vendors are already giving their wireless products a high profile but are treading carefully. Cisco, for example, describes its Aironet 340 series as "excellent complements or alternatives to the reliable, best-of-class, wired Lan products from Cisco".

Aironet complies with the IEEE 802.11b wireless ethernet standard and this technology looks like being adopted by many vendors before the Bluetooth specification. The latter, due to its speed and distance limitations, is much more likely to develop as a small home or office system that connects personal digital assistants, printers and desktop PC devices easily and quickly.

When the wider commercial community adopts IP comprehensively, the products will be ready. However, as recent figures have demonstrated, there is no assurance that this will happen in the very near future. Corporate politics is holding back voice over IP, and ecommerce is not engulfing all organisations in the way it was thought it might.

Even so, for large-scale integrators such as Chernikeeff, the main market remains the corporate space. But Boyle can see the potential of the smaller business market. "What we have seen recently is more networking technology that is cost justifiable and beneficial in the SME and SoHo (small office home office) space. But have you got that 10/100 switch and Catalyst 5 installed at home yet?" he says.

This is a valid, if obvious point. Few smaller businesses, let alone homes, will have the basic structures needed to support real networking today.

This may put even more emphasis on the small business market and this is where many developers are already focusing their efforts. Email is a key driver in the mid-market, and there is also growing interest in converged voice and internet connection. But as well as finding the right products, vendors have to get the balance between cost and functionality just right.

Jim Selby, European product manager at Microtest Europe, says there is a growing opportunity in the mid-market for network-attached devices such as storage, printers and other peripherals. Many products have been developed in this area over the past few months and interest is growing, he says. These products could offer resellers some of the best opportunities available in the market today.

Selby says network appliances are succeeding in the workgroup market against expensive and potentially complex Windows NT or Netware servers because users like the idea of task-specific devices that offer low cost of ownership and non-technical maintenance.

"One of the big advantages of using a network appliance is its ability to run on all of the major protocols simultaneously. Resellers need not concern themselves too much with the customer' chosen network infrastructure as the appliance will easily adapt as required. They do not need to keep up to date with a multitude of appliances for different solutions. Just a couple of devices will cover most eventualities, saving them time, money and confusion," says Selby.

Size does matter
More products designed to appeal to the smaller business market are now emerging. It is a key area of focus for Cisco, and the world's top networking company now builds all its solutions around IP and the internet.

A great deal of marketing effort has been put behind products aimed at the SoHo and smaller business markets. Whole sections of Cisco's website are devoted to these solutions. The vendor is targeting smaller firms with its Microswitch 10/100 products, Fasthub 400 range and models in the Catalyst range of switches.

Another example is Ramp Networks, which recently launched a small office router and Fast Ethernet hub combination. The WebRamp 311i and WebRamp 361I support up to three 56k V.90 modems (two integrated) and a four-port 10/100 ethernet hub. The 361i also supports virtual private networks (VPNs) and web caching.

As productivity increases, network performance has become an issue in smaller offices, claims Dave Moss, UK managing director at Ramp. "Cost savings and efficiency are key factors in small offices. VPNs and web caching offer small businesses the opportunity to simply and cost effectively provide their employees the tools necessary for enhanced performance over secure internet connections," he says.

Ease of use and control are key selling points for these products. Ramp gives a 15-minute installation guarantee on its WebRamp products. "These businesses don't have IT departments or IT managers, but second-jobbers for whom IT administration is an additional role," says Moss.

According to David Ridley, product marketing manager at Samsung Telecoms, the main area of opportunity for resellers is in companies with up to 20 employees where, he predicts, converged products that combine office private branch exchange (PBX) functions with Lan hub, router and IP capability will sell on a simple cost-benefit equation.

"It would cost upward of £4000 for a smaller company of 10 employees to buy a separate phone system and Lan hardware," says Ridley. "The converged product comes in at under half that, but still gives the same functions to the user and a good margin for dealers too. What's more, smaller companies appreciate the relative simplicity of a single box solution, and it allows resellers to get more involved in the customer's overall business needs, not just one aspect of his IT."

Email is the key
Nick Craddock, marketing manager at router vendor BinTec Communications, says smaller firms need products to be kept simple, as the task can seem daunting even when they are putting in email. "The main driver in the SME market is simply the need to have email," he says. "This is having a knock-on effect in companies that don't already have a Lan infrastructure and therefore need a fairly big capital investment to get it up and running. Many are switching from 'green screens' to PCs on the desktop."

Although email may be the near-exclusive driver for adoption of networking in the small business space, there is further potential, says Craddock. "Once email is in place and everyone has a phone - GSM, wireless application protocol or whatever - the service providers will drop prices to get us to use these services. This will usually require more software or features at the office to deliver messages to the outside world," he adds.

Products that support the unification of all types of messaging will be developed, and while the onus will be on software, hardware vendors will also be able to address the potential of this market. Currently, it is only perception that is holding the market back, according to Craddock. "The technology exists to overcome IP's limitations, it just isn't sufficiently pervasive yet. We are led to believe there is plenty of bandwidth around - that's why I think the service providers and telcos will offer cheap or free applications to get us to use it," he says.

Big obstacles
There is growing interest in voice over IP and IP telephony, but barriers remain. "We are seeing huge demand yet we still encounter big businesses with separate voice and data networks," says Boyle.

This is a familiar story. The products are arriving and opening up the market slowly. But internal politics and operational structures are hampering uptake. Voice over IP is helping growth into the otherwise flat video conferencing market, but this technology still needs to improve a good deal before it will become seductive and cheap enough for mass uptake, says Boyle.

David Shimell, managing director at video conferencing supplier Vcon UK, says the networked video conferencing market will expand steadily as new products come onto the market, and blur distinctions between data and voice networks.

"In five years time, PABXs (private automatic branch exchanges) will be 'soft-PABXs', and video and audio conferencing will be a natural extension to packet-based data transactions over the internet or corporate intranet," he says. "We are already seeing massive reductions in 2Mbps leased lines from the new age telcos. With xDSL rollout from BT and other telcos, the way will be open for widespread deployment of higher-bandwidth IP."

Ultimately, this will bring about further adoption of converged products to support video streaming, video conferencing, IP/TV and voice over IP applications, says Shimell. The products will look different, but all this technology is already here today. And while there will be a migration to digital and then IP systems, Shimell predicts it will happen fast. "Today it is normally client-based on a Windows PC using business codecs from companies such as Vcon," he says.

"With integrated data collaboration from Microsoft Netmeeting and quality of service in the network from companies such as Cisco, solutions are already available on the market. But future-proofing is important. During the period of evolution to IP, ISDN-based conferencing has a part to play, but all that is changing quickly. We are introducing products this year which are going to be IP-only," he adds.

As network hardware develops, the complexity of communications is growing and so is the potential of the market. Boyle says Chernikeeff - a major Cisco reseller - does little but networking integration and consultancy, which has "more opportunities than ever seen before".

Chernikeeff expects to double its turnover this year. While much of that will be driven by the services that surround the integration, a good proportion of it will be pure product and hardware sales. Perhaps there will not be many networking resellers that will enjoy such levels of growth, but there is clearly no shortage of potential.

Conclusions

• Multi-protocol label switching is a key technology as quality of service and control are becoming more important in the development of networking systems
• Bluetooth and wireless ethernet technologies are developing but will not mature for some time
• Networking products for smaller businesses are developing fast and addressing specific email, virtual private network and simple connectivity needs of small firms. Vendors see this as a key market.
• Network-attached devices - storage, printers and other peripherals that self-configure - are attracting interest
• Digital subscriber line services are encouraging further development of converged voice and data products, video and video conferencing systems, particularly products aimed at smaller companies. As the internet, telecoms and networking converge, complexity is increasing and creating more potential for sales of network hardware products than ever before.