Systems/Enterprise:
3COM TECHNOLOGY ADDRESSES RISING
NETWORK COSTS
South African companies - whether SME or large enterprises - have come to
realise that the network is the core of their business. But with budget
constraints plaguing most IT departments, the focus has shifted to networks
that offer reduced TCO (total cost of ownership) rather than high-performance
computing.
"Local organisations require networks that offer RAS (reliability,
availability and scalability) without significant expenditure," comments Chris
van Niekerk, country manager, 3Com SA.
"Many feel they can't keep up with the fast evolution of IT - and resultant
costs - and would rather pay for networking technologies that benefit them
immediately, but which are still easily upgradeable therefore making provision
for future expansions.
"The solution is to give companies enhanced flexibility when building their
LAN cores," says Van Niekerk.
"At 3Com we believe that both IT and business managers are looking for
options
that enable them to pay for the network as it grows. Adhering to this demand
we developed the eXpandable Resilient Networking (XRN) technology," he
says.
XRN enables companies to satisfy their immediate needs while knowing they
won't be compromising networking functionality. And when business demands
require it, they can make use of 3Com's pay-as-you-grow option and cost-
effectively upgrade to the next level.
This Distributed Fabric provides high levels of network availability and
fault
tolerance to ensure continuous operation. One of the key differentiators of
XRN technology is that multiple Gigabit Layer 3 switches are interconnected,
behaving as a single logical multilayer switching entity called a Distributed
Fabric.
Another key business feature of XRN is that SA companies can benefit from
reduced network management costs. Explains Van Niekerk: "XRN lets both
switches in a Distributed Fabric function as a single entity - doubling the
capacity of the core without an increase in administration overhead or
management complexity."
With XRN local companies won't have to compromise on high-performance
networking to achieve reduced TCO - knowing that their business backbone will
still be running quietly and efficiently.
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