OmniSwitch 7000 for enterprise infrastructure

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

Although several years have passed since I had my first cell phone, its image always crosses my mind each time I hear the name Alcatel. It was made by this French company, but I no longer remember its model number. The blue cell phone was unbelievably big and heavy by today's standards, but its batteries did not last longer than a day. There was little in the way of features to talk about, except for making and receiving calls.

The cell phone, by the way, was sold to me by a relative who no longer needed it. When I bought my Siemens S25, I gave the Alcatel to a nephew. He used it for only a week, and then he bought his own Siemens C25. I was not surprised.

Today, Alcatel still makes great cell phones, though. You still can find them on the local market. However, those units are not brought in by PT Alcatel Indonesia, as the company already decided to pull out of the local handset market quite some time ago. Therefore, if you still decide to buy an Alcatel cell phone because you think you have got to be "different", you may need to send it to Singapore in the event that it requires service.

However, as Alcatel's cell phones do not break easily, it will be some time before you may have to do that.

In Indonesia, Alcatel has focused its business on telecommunications infrastructure by providing the necessary equipment and services. The company is a dominant player in infrastructure, whether on land, undersea or in the sky. It is the only telecommunications equipment company that has launched satellites, set up terrestrial links and laid down submarine cables. The company has also dominated China's market for infrastructure, as that amazing country works rapidly in connecting its 1.3 billion people. * Enterprise solutions

What many of us have not been aware of is perhaps that this company has also been serving the enterprise market. Two years ago it launched its IP-PBX server for large enterprises called OmniPCX 4400, and this product has been receiving awards ever since.

Late last October, this company introduced its new line of switches in Indonesia that are targeted for mission-critical, IP- based applications. A switch is a device that very intelligently manages different types of data across a network. The OmniSwitch 7000 Series consists of models for network core and network edge for large companies wishing to build their data infrastructure.

One of the features of the new switches is the support for IP telephony. Incidentally, I was surprised to hear from an employee of a major local company recently that her company had been limiting the use of the office telephones. With PT Telecom already talking about a 33.3 percent rate increase to be introduced next month, it is understandable that more and more companies with employees scattered all over the country -- and even the world -- will have to find new ways to communicate. IP telephony will certainly be an alternative that many of them will seriously look into.

Security is also a growing issue, as the Internet, intranet and extranet are increasingly used as alternative infrastructure for large companies while hackers are also growing in number and ability. These switches come with the CrystalSec security framework. Alcatel also says that it has built the OmniSwitch 7000 series on a distributed, intelligent architecture to enable carrier-class availability, including full redundancy and resiliency, for continuous network operation-even in the case of failover of the management module.

There are three models in the new line, OmniSwitch 7700, 7800 and 8800. The OmniSwitch 7700 and 7800 are meant to be used as network edge or medium-capacity network core equipment, while the OmniSwitch 8800 is meant for the high end core capable of delivering 10GB.

Today, the role of IP networks in the enterprises has also grown in importance from being just the supporting infrastructure into a business enabler. Employees cannot work efficiently unless they are connected at any time and from anywhere. Therefore, availability of the infrastructure has become even more crucial as its absence can cause a tremendous loss ... to businesses and downtime today will cost a company ten times more that it would five years ago," said Alex Filocca, Alcatel's Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific. Alcatel promises a network availability level of 99.999 percent, which means that the network must not be down longer than 5.26 minutes each year. How I wish my Internet cable had this level of reliability!

The new switches have also been designed with convergence of different types of data in mind. It can, for example, be configured quickly and easily with one single touch to prioritize voice or video traffic. * Quality end-to-end

Last month, when the rain started falling in my area, I began to lose my Internet access again. There was nothing wrong with my gateway computer or my cable modem. When I called my provider www.cbn.net.id to check what was wrong, I was told that the problem might have been caused by the rain. Because of the dampness, there was too much noise on the distribution network. Its susceptibility to moisture might have been caused by careless, lazy or unprofessional installation. To my disbelief, I was told to be patient and to wait until the rain stopped and the outdoor cables dried. Luckily, somehow the problem went away and has not returned although it has rained more and more lately.

What this demonstrates is that a top-notch switch, router or any other major equipment in a network will not by itself guarantee top-notch services to the users. A switch is one crucial component, but the other elements -- from one end to the other -- must be installed correctly and provide the same level of QoS.