As business communications become more complex, so have the solutions providing the services. Gawie Basson, Sales Engineer at SPS South Africa, points out the best solutions are based on open standards and commodity hardware.
As networking technology becomes more and more an essential tool in business today, so its impact is being felt in more areas. Perhaps the most dramatic impact has been felt in the various ways people are able to access information remotely. The technologies enabling this remote information sharing can be grouped under the heading of communication servers. They typically provide one or more of the following: routing, multiprotocol support, dial-up access, fax services, modem pools, gateway services, firewalling and proxy services, and protocol tunnelling or conversion.
There are two basic ways of delivering these functions of communications servers: open and closed systems. Closed systems use proprietary hardware and a proprietary operating system. They also provide the ports for both LAN and WAN connections, and have a proprietary routing/dial-up engine. Closed systems are typically designed and engineered to support very special functions with optimal performance. On the other hand, this approach has certain limitations: it is relatively inflexible, expensive, and complex, and it forces users to a sole source for service, upgrades and support. That complexity requires special training, and it can be overkill in many situations.
The alternative to the closed-box method: open communication servers, which combine a PC-based hardware platform, with an open network operating system (NOS) and modular port components. This combination of open standards and fast, inexpensive hardware means open communications servers can provide comparable functionality to that of closed systems, and they are relatively simple, scalable, flexible, and inexpensive. One can install it on any known server-based operating system and take advantage on any server in the office to fulfill a customer's RAS requirements, without breaking their budget. It is also easier to mix brands - not locked into a single vendor's proprietary networking products.
Server-based solutions also consolidate functions in fewer boxes, make more efficient use of pooled devices, and allocate ports to different applications dynamically as they are needed. In fact, the server-based solution is, on average, at least 35% less expensive when the total cost of ownership is considered. In the past, using generic PC-class hardware for communications functions was considered unreliable.
But those perceptions are changing, as PC servers, network operating systems, and remote access concentrators continue to grow in popularity and power. Each one of these three key elements in server-based communications is more than capable of delivering. PC servers are powerful machines today, responsible for the running of millions of businesses large and small. For even more scalability and reliability, a number of servers can be clustered and managed as one very powerful logical unit. Such systems support a wide range of remote access needs today, such as telecommuters, mobile workers, branch office networks, and low-cost connectivity through the Internet. Meanwhile, the functionality and reliability of network operating systems continue to increase dramatically. Windows NT and Novell NetWare, for example, now provide point-to-point tunnelling protocol (PPTP), which allows remote users to access their network securely via the Internet. They also incorporate advanced routing technologies like open shortest path first (OSPF) and routing table manager (RTM). The Unix vendors have long been leaders in industrial-strength network operating systems. SCO's UnixWare 7, for example, has advanced features to boost performance, reliability, scalability, and security for Intel-based servers.
Because PC servers typically come without enough ports to function as communication servers, the third major element in server-based remote access is an adapter providing the ports for network access. Adapter boards come in various flavours: asynchronous serial ports for high-speed modem connections; ISDN adapters for switched digital connections; packet-switched adapters for frame relay and other synchronous connections; and modem concentrator boards incorporating both analog and digital (T1,E1, PRI, BRI) models of operations.
Leading the way in this fast-growing market are the new RAS concentrators from Digi with as many as 60 high-density modem channels or ISDN B channel connections over T1/E1/PRI lines in a single PCI slot. Digi is the market leader in the fixed-port remote access market, encompassing asynchronous, synchronous, and ISDN ports, with over 50% market share, according to IDC. Digi RAS products support a variety of operating systems and they work with a wide range of security, accounting and network management applications. Every RAS product family member is SNMP-compliant and can be managed by any commercially available SNMP manager, such as HP OpenView and IBM NetView. In addition to the standard installation, configuration and management facilities provided by Network Operating Systems, The Digi RAS product family comes equipped with PortAssist Java Manager, a web-based configuration, management and troubleshooting package custom built for all of the Digi adapters installed in a network.
South African users today use Digi RAS solutions for network management, phone systems, fax applications, linking up branches, connecting salespeople and mobile users and software transfers.
For further information contact Gawie Basson, SPS South Africa, (011) 315 6892, gawieb@sps.co.za
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