THE H-REPORT

News, Trends and Analysis

by Timothy Haight and Christine Hudgins-Bonafield

IBM And Novell: The Common Ground

Rumors that IBM plans to acquire Novell have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, while the companies won't comment. It is clear, however, that the two Microsoft rivals are working together to develop, market and support NetWare for SAA. Future NetWare for SAA products will be co-branded and delivered through Novell sales channels. This month Novell and IBM are expected to announce a new low-end NetWare/AS-400 product that will ship in the first quarter of 1996. It will feature new user-based pricing that will compete with the user-based pricing of Microsoft's SAA gateway and BackOffice suite. The IBM/Novell pricing is expected to range from about $120 per user for five users to about $70 per user for 50 users. The pricing is aimed at businesses connecting one or a few AS/400s to their LANs. Session-based pricing will continue with the main NetWare for SAA product. Both it and the new low-end product are slated for future APPC and switching support. Support calls will be transferred to the most appropriate company via hot communications links. Novell's NetWare Directory Services will continue to be a part of NetWare for SAA, although it is not clear whether IBM will use NDS or Lotus' directory scheme outside this specific relationship.

ATM Desktop Connections Drop To $1,000 Per Port

The desktop ATM price war is raging as vendors shoot for $1,000 per p ort. CrossComm is expected to ship its XLX ATM Workgroup Switch this month for less than that. It will also announce a modular design, so users can swap out cards to support new carrier implementations of DS-3 and single-mode fiber without having to buy a second switch. CrossComm will also announce the XLX 1204 at $17,995 with four ports connecting to the backbone, the XLX 0808 at $15,995 with eight ports connecting to the backplane, but only eight on the front of the box, instead of 12. The XLX is designed to be used for desktop ATM, as an enterprise front-end for power users or as a mini-backbone of 5 Gbps for $12,000. It provides simultaneous nonblocking performance to all 12 ports.

When SNMP Friends Fall Out

SNMP was built as much on the friendship, calculations and strong personalities of its authors as on technology. As friendships sour, however, it appears a secure version of the management architecture will be delayed until at least late 1996 under a mandatory "cooling off" period ordered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) area director overseeing the work.

But SNMP author Jeff Case, won't wait. He believes the process was put on hold to accommodate the busy schedule of fellow author Marshall Rose. The IETF working group reached rough consensus on about 250 pages of SNMPv2 specs, but could not agree on more than 100 pages about security and administration--the heart of the new version. Much of the debate is over features promoted by the chief management platform providers--who have stalled SNMPv2 by failing to implement it. Case wants a composite spec and he tells us that he sees several options for getting it: Get another area director, establish a blue ribbon panel or let the market decide. Case says he'll move through the standards community as long as he can. If that doesn't work, he'll simply augment the source code SNMP Research delivers to vendors to support security. He says he'll meet any standard that is adopted.

In his first interview on the subject, Rose says, "Our actions have placed the interests of the community well before our commercial and professional/personal interests. It is fair to say that we do not feel that Jeff is acting in a similar fashion." Rose denies the delay is to accommodate himself: "The record shows that I have completed every milestone set by the working group chair ahead of schedule," while "Jeff has missed many, if not all, of these milestones." The H reporters sure wish these guys would lock themselves in a room with a business counselor, get over the ugliness and resolve these issues.

IBM Hopes To Become Internet's Master Sleuth

BuzzNet

Beta Breath: Symptom of addiction to early software. For example, "waiting with beta breath." Reported to keep you up nights. Incurable.

Processor-Independent NetWare: Available on every major CPU, as long as it's Intel. PowerMac is latest cancelled effort. Earlier was HP-PA.

"Ajar" Systems: Systems where the standards are almost open, as a door is "ajar." For example, Internet browsing, which is based on standards but where 70 percent of the market is held by one product with increasing proprietary extensions.

Statshots

Need For Bandwidth Accelerates, High-Speed Networks Coming Fast

Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., says bandwidth needs drive plans to adopt high-speed networks, particularly ATM, over the next three years. Forrester analyst Paul Callahan says more than 80 percent of respondents cited raw bandwidth shortage as the reason for buying new LANs. Increased real-time applications was cited by only 18 percent. ATM is expected to dominate the backbone in three years but is also strong on the desktop, exceeded only by fast Ethernet. For more information: Forrester Research at (617) 497-7090.

Quick Bits

SMDS Push Coming From MCI

MCI is making a major push into Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS). Officials hoped by this month to announce a global SMDS rollout with SMDS Internet access in 1996--"hopefully sooner than later," says Stephen VonRump, VP Data Services Marketing. MCI officials believe ATM will ultimately prove most versatile, but they say SMDS is compelling now because of a well-defined network interface, solid man-agement, easy interconnection and DS-3 capabilities.

Instant Map, Just Add Territory

As we predicted in January, common agent technology for the Desktop Management Interface and SNMP has been introduced by IBM, Apple, Ki NETWORKS and Sun. The mapper converts DMI information to SNMP. IBM's implementation will be in its System-View Agent for OS/2, AIX, Windows95 and NT. But SNMP Research's Jeff Case contends that only one of about 25 useful desktop MIBs can be easily mapped.

If there is something we ought to know, we welcome proposals for articles. Please e-mail us at H-REPORT@nwc.com.

November 15, 1995