Stories about: Vertical Systems Group

VPNs are well established as essential tools for corporate communications, but they are not all created equal. Here are six questions and their answers that can help you make decisions about which VPN technology to use.

Edge switch startup WaveSmith Networks Inc. Tuesday rolled out a frame relay module for its multiservice DN switch, which enables service providers to continue to offer legacy services to enterprises while preparing an eventual migration to IP.

Fresh from selling off what amounts to its corporate networks division, Lucent Technologies Inc. last week admitted that its zeal for signing all emerging carriers for equipment and professional services has gotten it into some trouble.

The explosion in data traffic caused by the Internet is forcing service providers to seek new ways to increase the capacity of their fiber-optic infrastructures and provision circuits within minutes instead of months. This data eruption is also prompting enterprise customers to seek out relationships with service providers that can guarantee continuous data network uptime and capacity, and that have the agility to turn up bandwidth on demand. And what technology is going to handle these radical changes? Optical switching.

Quantum Bridge says it has tools to link computers that are miles apart via 10M-bit/sec optical fiber connections that cost about the same as 1.5M-bit/sec T-1s.

The squeeze on AT&T Corp. to provide its competitors with open access to its broadband cable network shows no signs of loosening as regulatory efforts kick into gear this week. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking Democrat of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, next week will submit a concurrent resolution to the House of Representatives calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to treat cable Internet-access network services as telecommunications services.

Cisco Systems has quietly killed its prime offering for the core of enterprise and service provider WANs and has delayed delivery of another WAN switch by about a year.

MCI WorldCom is moving rapidly to kill off overlapping parts of its combined networks.