Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

EMC, Nortel Tie Optical Knot: Page 2 of 3

"This is the next logical step," says Jack Hunt, Nortel’s director of marketing for storage and photonics. "We will use our joint assessment tools to help enterprises determine what kind of storage and connectivity they need. We’re offering an assessment service and certification that EMC and Nortel will stand behind the performance we will deliver."

Hunt says he expects storage over Sonet to be available from the Business Continuity over Optical Network service [ed. note: BCON for short?] in the first quarter of 2003. The generic framing procedure (GFP) card that supports Sonet for the OPTera Metro 5100 and 5200 platforms recently completed EMC E-Lab qualification testing (see Nortel Pipes SANs Into Sonet).

“That would be the next step and it might bear more fruit than the DWDM infrastructure they’re starting with,” Perrin says, regarding Nortel's storage-over-Sonet plans.

The EMC/Nortel service primarily targets their current customers that want to extend their replication capabilities over longer distances, medium-sized companies looking to extend the benefits of their SANs, and service providers. The last group could benefit the most over time, according to Perrin.

"Initially, they might see more uptick on the enterprise side, but we’re seeing the business moving from the enterprise side to the service providers’ managed services," he says.