WAN SYSTEMS & SERVICES Enterprise Remote Access: AccessBuilder 5000 Enterprise LAN/WAN Switch 3 Com Corp. has played the winning hand for enterprise remote access with the AccessBuilder 5000. This chassis-based, fault-tolerant, hot-swappable hub with redundant power supply has enough lights to double as a casino on the Vegas strip. It also has the best overall flexibility, speed and management features in a high-stakes game. When all bets were down and 96 clients began hammering this multisegment hub, everybody came out a winner. All clients played without delay, moving asynchronous data quickly and consistently across four T1s as if it were only one T1. This heaviest of loads was no problem for the Acces sBuilder 5000 because of its special chassis design, which comes from 3Com's Encore enterprise product line. Each remote-access server can--and at these densities must--sit on its own Ethernet segment. The chassis design allows software configuration of segments as shared or switched. Like most of the products in this category, the Windows-based GUI for AccessBuilder 5000 was average. More unusual was the inclusion of a Transcend Enterprise Manager module for Unix that ran on top of leading network management platforms, including Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenView and IBM Corp.'s TME-10. But the Web-enabled call-accounting software, AccessWatch, was out in front at the wire. All in all, 3Com came to play and walked away with the prize. The two honorable mentions, Microcom's Access Integrator and Shiva Corp.'s LanRover Access Switch, are itching to get 3Com back to the table. Microcom helped 3Com's winning hand along by providing the modems for the chassis. Microcom has its own version of this same chass is, which, as would be expected, is a killer remote-access server. Both Microcom's and 3Com's servers look identical at first glance, but they aren't. On the performance side, the nod went to Microcom, with ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) support and a later revision of code on the modems (which made the Microcom device a little faster). On the management side, Microcom's product couldn't quite compete with the likes of 3Com. However, if you subscribe to the belief that vendor independence is more important than management capabilities, then Microcom service includes a Cisco Systems remote-access server blade in place of 3Com's. The final difference between the Microcom and 3Com boxes was a Microcom-patented technology, called Adaptive Switching. We were not able to get this full functionality for our testing this year, but we were told that Adaptive Switching promises to virtualize modem and WAN resources for dynamic allocation across multiple resources. Finally, speed and more speed seems to be S hiva's mantra. The LanRover turned in some of the fastest times and was always consistent. Shiva has pushed the processing of asynchronous packets out onto the modems, freeing the central processor and making for a very flat performance curve, even when fully loaded. Shiva's always-easy management is about to take a big step fo rward with intelligent use of Web-enabled management. Shiva recognizes that managing users across multiple servers is a fact of life, and groupings for configuration and call accounting is key. The new Web tool sums call activity across multiple servers with flexible and portable reporting. AccessBuilder 5000 Enterprise LAN/WAN Switch , $20,000 to $110,000, 3Com Corp., (800) 638-3266, www.3com.com Honorable Mentions: Microcom Access Integrator , $550 per port, Microcom, (800) 822-8224, www.microcom.com LanRover Access Switch , starts at $25,000, S hiva Corp., (800) 977-4482, www.shiva.com Awards Table of Contents

Updated April 24, 1997