February 1999

Dancing at the Dawn of a "New Age in Telecommunications"

BY MARC ROBINS

After years of tapping its feet by the punch bowl at the "Global Telecom Gala," Sun Microsystems is finally moving confidently onto the dance floor. For the first time in (at least my dim) memory, it appears that Sun has begun the painstaking process of knitting together the various pieces of technology, applications, and solutions at its disposal. And it has come up with a cohesive, logical plan to extend its brand into the deepest, darkest corners of the global telecom service infrastructure.

Yes, Sun has been selling into the telco space for many years - but it has been mainly focused on selling its SPARCstations for back office applications such as database and billing. In fact, about 20 percent of Sun Microsystems' revenues are derived from the telecommunications industry, which makes it the company's single largest market segment. But when it came to switching, Advanced Intelligent Networking (AIN), enhanced services, and Internet telephony - the fastest-growing and new mission-critical segments of the market - Sun's offerings were sparse and disorganized. That is, until now.

A special "New Age in Telecommunications" gathering - hosted by none other than Sun - was recently held in New York. The event was highlighted not so much by the introduction of new, NEBS-compliant (i.e., fault-tolerant), carrier-class servers, but by the lineup of technology partners and solutions providers showing off an impressive array of telco-ready solutions ready to run on these systems. The solutions include datacom, CTI, unified messaging, Internet telephony, fax, billing, SS7, and alarming, to name but a few.

THE DANCE CARD FILLS UP
It is indeed an impressive roster of partners who have allied with Sun in this initiative. Those who have announced that they're dressing up and coming to this dance include:

• Open Port - makers of fax-over-IP server products;
• Cisco - a leader in router and VoIP technology;
• Del Mar Solutions - creators of telco alarming software products;
• Lucent - what doesn't Lucent do?
• Brite Voice - makers of voice response and CTI solutions;
• DGM&S, ADC NewNet and Trillium - key players in the SS7 protocol stack market;
• Adax - a vendor of WAN datacom boards and software;
• Dialogic - a leader in the CTI marketplace;
• Inktomi - a search engine and network caching pioneer;
• Portal Software - a billing solutions provider;
• APiON Ltd. - a Northern Ireland-based telecom software solutions developer specializing in IN applications; and
• Linkon - a vendor of Solaris-based Internet telephony gateways.

SO MANY ANALYSTS CAN'T BE WRONG
Sun's "laser" focus on the opportunities of the new telecom landscape is understandable. Just consider the numbers: This year, the global telecommunications services marketplace (comprising public network services for wired and wireless voice, data, video, and the Internet) will generate a projected $1 Trillion, according to Northern Business Information. The telecom equipment market was worth $110 Billion in 1998 and is growing at 20 percent a year, according to a NATA Telecommunications Market Review. The market for Internet telephony is expected to hit $4.5 Billion in 2001 and grow 35 percent a year, according to Bellcore.

Now, consider what Sun has going for it, besides the fact that it has a vested interest to hold and gain ground:

1. Unix is the OS of choice in virtually 99.99 percent of the world's telecom infrastructure. Solaris, as a best-of-breed Unix variant, dominates here.
2. Sun servers are already a favorite platform for telecom applications development.
3. Nearly 70 percent of the Internet's backbone runs on Sun servers. (Not too shabby.)
4. Fully 10 of the 12 major ISPs in the country rely on Sun's technology.

Sun's renewed commitment to the telecom market is important to all of us involved with the miasma of convergence. Sun - together with its all-important partners - just might be one of the few technology alliances on Earth at the moment that can deliver most of the pieces of what they are billing as "The Service Driven Network." This network concept - a universal, or converged, network that serves as the transport medium for voice, data, and video - isn't new. It's what Internet Telephony magazine has been writing about since its inception. But it is gratifying to see a $10 billion company finally "GET IT," and help spread the gospel to boot!

THE NETWORK APPLICATION TWO-STEP
The kinds of applications and services that will run on this new network include unified messaging, IN/AIN, e-commerce, voice-over-everything, and Internet-access-on-anything. Intelligent network solutions include local number portability, wireless roaming, and switch control and signaling services. IP-based applications run the gamut from voice and fax over IP, virtual private networks, signaling and call control gateways, and service access functions.

Sun is jockeying into position to play a role in three key areas of this new telecom landscape: the Business, or Operation/Provisioning layer; the Physical Network layer; and the Element, or Service layer. In terms of Operations - what we usually refer to as the Central Office or ISP POP - Sun is readying a new crop of carrier-class servers and storage devices. For the network layer, Sun is offering up JAIN (Java Advanced Intelligent Network). In the element layer, Sun envisions variations of JAVA powering myriad network access devices, such as JMAPI-based cell phones, JTAPI-based PCs/NCs, and Embedded Java-based phones, PIMs, and you name it. In terms of hardware, Sun has components and systems that can play a role in all three layers, from CPU and JAVA chips to CompactPCI boards to servers to storage subsystems.

Sun's telco initiative also leverages the newly released Solaris 7.0 operating system, which adds a 64-bit architecture with increased scalability and a dramatic boost in performance. Solaris 7.0 also offers easier administration through several tools included with the operating system. Also included in 7.0 is the latest release of TotalNet Advanced Server, which helps simplify the integration between Unix and non-Unix networks through the use of browser-based administration tools.

TO THE BALL, WITH SHEFFIELD
Sun's new Central Office-class server, the Netra ft 1800 (otherwise known as the "Sheffield") is dressed to kill. It features a Level 3 NEBS certification for 99.999-percent availability, and ETSI compliance. Based on the Enterprise 450 architecture, the Netra ft 1800 offers impressive scalability. The server can accommodate up to eight 300 MHz 64-bit UltraSPARC CPUs, 16 PCI or 12 SCSI disk slots, and 4 front-loading CD and DAT drives - all at an extremely competitive $160,000 price point. The ft 1800 follows the earlier introduction of Sun's mid-range Netra t 1100/1120/1125 rack-mountable servers.

For storing the flood of data riding on the network, Sun has developed a NEBS-certified disk array specifically designed for central office applications. The Netra st A1000/D1000 features DC and AC power options, expansion to 108 GB, host or controller-based RAID operation, and redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, fans, and drives.

CONCLUSION
So it's clear that in terms of hardware, operating systems, and programming resources - Sun is a formidable contender. But it's also clear that Sun is placing a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of its partners to develop the middleware, applications, and turnkey solutions - and perform the bulk of the marketing and promotion - that will actually drive sales into the telecommunications marketplace. Sun seems to be committed to the expansion of its existing alliance programs, and plans on building dedicated engineering resources focused on hardening drivers for the new Netra platforms. But will this be enough?

And therein lies the rub: The level of commitment, and the resources brought to bear by the partners in this new arena will be crucial for Sun's "new age" vision to be realized. Will Sun stick to its "non-compete" strategy and keep away from the solutions business, or will we start seeing Sun-branded Internet telephony gateways, enhanced services platforms, and the like when all else fails? Only time will tell…

Marc Robins is Associate Group Publisher for INTERNET TELEPHONY AND CTI magazines. His column, Mind Share, appears monthly in the pages of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. Marc readily looks forward to your feedback. E-mail your comments and questions to mrobins@tmcnet.com.