Carriers push users to move off legacy nets

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: OPTICAL NETWORKING
06/20/05

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Carriers moving users to IP network services
* Links related to Optical Networking
* Featured reader resource
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by DuPont
Reduce Fire Safety Risk in Your Network!

Concerns are rising about the growing number of combustible
cables present in buildings required to service the
ever-increasing demands of IT networks. More workstations are
taxing the infrastructure. These concerns are the thrust behind
new "limited combustible" cables that reduce fire safety risk.
Click here for news, a free demo CD and more. Visit DuPont's
Cabling center today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=107017
_______________________________________________________________
CAN VOIP SAVE MONEY?

(Maybe). Check out Network World's Technology Insider on VoIP
for the latest on VoIP. Here we take a look at IP telephony of
the future, examine SIP-B and test unified messaging packages
from four vendors. Click here for more:
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=106907
_______________________________________________________________

Today's focus: Carriers push users to move off legacy nets

By Denise Pappalardo

Frame relay customers take note: The clock is ticking.

Sprint says it will turn off its legacy data networks in four
years. At that point any stragglers will be forced to migrate to
one of the carrier's IP network services and backbone - and away
from tried-and-true frame and ATM.

Sprint says it has talked with all of its frame relay customers
about this plan, which it calls "data simplification," and about
the variety of services they could move to today.

Although AT&T and MCI have not publicly said when they will turn
off their frame relay and ATM networks, both are encouraging
users with current and new services to move to their IP MPLS
networks.

According to Vertical Systems Group, there are more than 1.4
million frame relay ports deployed in the U.S. Of those, only 5%
are being used to access IP services. The vast majority of these
ports still are connecting to traditional Layer 2 frame relay
networks.

The writing is on the wall, though, and Sprint has been the most
forthcoming with its consolidation plans.

"We're offering an easy, cost-effective migration for customers
that lets them use the same equipment and their traffic is
encapsulated and sent over our IP network," says Vicki Warker,
vice president of marketing and products for Sprint Business
Solutions.

Sprint for the last six months has been notifying customers that
it plans to phase out its legacy data networks and offer the
option of Layer 2 or Layer 3 VPN service, she says.

One customer that has been notified by Sprint is Finlay Fine
Jewelry, a New York retailer with sales counters in 963
department stores nationwide.

"I'm fully aware that Sprint is contemplating phasing out frame
relay and I wholeheartedly embrace their technology choice,
which is MPLS," says Finlay CIO Jim Giantomenico. Finlay, which
uses multiple services from Sprint, is about to swap out its 16
dedicated frame relay links for Sprint's Layer 2 frame relay
service.

Giantomenico says he expects the deployment to begin next month
and be finished by September.

"What we are getting is a defined network. One of the reasons I
got excited about this is because we will be getting better
service levels and prioritization with MPLS," he says.

Sprint's Layer 2 frame relay service will let Giantomenico
prioritize traffic into different classes of service, a feature
that was never available with frame relay.

Giantomenico also says he's more comfortable moving to a Layer 2
rather than a Layer 3 frame relay service. He says he's more
familiar with Layer 2 networking and he likes that his traffic
will be routed via virtual circuits rather than across any open
route on the carrier's backbone. The latter is true for Layer 3
frame services, which route encapsulated frame packets over an
IP network alongside IP packets from any of the carrier's
customers.

While Giantomenico is looking forward to the new features he'll
get with Sprint's offering, one analyst cautions that network
consolidation onto a single backbone opens the door for more
drastic network failures.

"All of the [interexchange carriers] are looking at
consolidating around a common IP MPLS core," says David Willis,
vice president of enterprise communications at Gartner. "When
carriers consolidate this far there are more areas where they
can run into operation problems. The best historical reference
is the frame relay network meltdowns that AT&T and MCI had in
'98 and '99."

In 1998, about 6,000 AT&T frame relay users were left in the
lurch when the carrier's network went dark for about 24 hours
because of a software problem. In 1999, about 3,400 MCI frame
relay customers suffered excruciatingly slow performance or lost
connectivity altogether after the carrier experienced a software
problem with one of its switch vendors.

"In the end, these networks are run by people, and switches and
routers that run software," Willis says. "And we know those
things fail."

In the past, customers would use multiple services from one
carrier to ensure redundancy. If all traffic is sent over the
same backbone, users will not have redundancy. "We'll probably
see more customers adopt a multi-carrier strategy as a result of
network consolidation," Willis says.

The rest of this story can be found at:
<http://www.networkworld.com/nloptical2687>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Denise Pappalardo

Denise Pappalardo is a Senior Editor at Network World covering
service providers. She can be reached at
<mailto:denise_pappalardo@nww.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by DuPont
Reduce Fire Safety Risk in Your Network!

Concerns are rising about the growing number of combustible
cables present in buildings required to service the
ever-increasing demands of IT networks. More workstations are
taxing the infrastructure. These concerns are the thrust behind
new "limited combustible" cables that reduce fire safety risk.
Click here for news, a free demo CD and more. Visit DuPont's
Cabling center today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=107016
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Optical Networking newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/optical/index.html
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE
CALL FOR ENTRIES: 2005 ENTERPRISE ALL-STAR AWARDS

Network World is looking for entries for its inaugural
Enterprise All-Star Awards program. The Enterprise All-Star
Awards will honor user organizations that demonstrate
exceptional use of network technology to further business
objectives. Network World will honor dozens of user
organizations from a wide variety of industries, based on a
technology category. Deadline: July 8. Enter today:
<http://www.networkworld.com/survey/easform.html?net>
_______________________________________________________________
May We Send You a Free Print Subscription?
You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered
at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by
receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. Apply
today at http://www.subscribenw.com/nl2

International subscribers click here:
http://nww1.com/go/circ_promo.html
_______________________________________________________________
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail
newsletters, go to:
<http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Changes.aspx>

To change your e-mail address, go to:
<http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/ChangeMail.aspx>

Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to
this message.

This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com
Please use this address when modifying your subscription.
_______________________________________________________________

Have editorial comments? Write Jeff Caruso, Newsletter Editor,
at: <mailto:jcaruso@nww.com>

Inquiries to: NL Customer Service, Network World, Inc., 118
Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772

For advertising information, write Kevin Normandeau, V.P. of
Online Development, at: <mailto:sponsorships@nwfusion.com>

Copyright Network World, Inc., 2005