Subject: IBM/3Com/Bay Agreement

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 21 May 96 11:26:35 EST

AIW General -                                                                   
                                                                                
    I am a bit confused and troubled by the announcement that 3 of the          
    primary members of the AIW are going to collaborate outside of the          
    AIW in order to bring standards to the marketplace.                         
                                                                                
    IBM formed the APPN Implementors Workshop in 1993 for just this             
    purpose: to provide a forum for the advancement of IBM protocols            
    from multiple vendors.                                                      
                                                                                
    From the AIW Home Page at:                                                  
                                                                                
;http://www.raleigh.ibm.com/aspp/aiwhome.htm#aiwinfo                            
                                                                                
    it states that:                                                             
                                                                                
;"Members participate in the AIW to facilitate the availability                 
;of fully interoperable, high quality APPN products from a wide                 
;variety of vendors.  The AIW serves as a forum to share                        
;information about APPN, its implementations and customer                       
;experiences; to help one another with implementation problems;                 
;to develop any necessary enhancements; and to promote the use                  
;of APPN."                                                                      

    But from Friday's press release on Nando.net and Dow Jones, the           
    second paragraph below seems to clearly undermine IBM's own               
    initiative and the clearly-stated goal of the AIW.                        
                                                                              
    There seems to be a double standard (no pun intended) with regards        
    to IBM, 3Com, and Bay Networks participation in the standards             
    process.                                                                  
                                                                              
    I hope that the respective companies still care enough about the          
    AIW and the standards process to comment on this.                         
                                                                              
Regards,                                                                      
-------                                                                       
Wayne Clark                                                                   
SNA Architect                                                                 
cisco Systems, Inc.                                                           
[email-masked]                                                              
                                                                              
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    IBM, 3Com, Bay Networks to announce product pact                          
                                                                              
    Copyright =A9 1996 Nando.net                                              
    Copyright =A9 1996 Dow Jones News Service                                 
                                                                              
   NEW YORK (May 18, 1996 00:05 a.m. EDT) -- IBM Corp., 3Com Corp.     
   and Bay Networks Inc. are set to announce an agreement Monday       
   aimed at making their computer networking products work better      
   together.                                                           
                                                                       
   The companies also plan to work toward creating industry            
   standards that would make building networks easier for their        
   customers.                                                          
                                                                       
   According to people close to the arrangement, the three             
   technology companies have been discussing the alliance for          
   about five months. None of the companies would comment.             
                                                                       
   But behind the effort is the realization that computer networks     
   are getting more complex, not only as more computers link in,       
   but as demands for new services increase.                           
                                                                       
   For instance, many network administrators are beginning to          
   outfit their networks to carry multimedia data -- voice and         
   video. That means getting higher-performing data highways to        
   transport the data.                                                 
                                                                       
   But the agreement among IBM and the two big networkers could        
   end up at odds with Cisco Systems Inc., the industry leader,        
   because of differences in networking "architecture" each employs.

   The alliance among IBM of Armonk, N.Y., 3Com of Santa Clara,       
   Calif., and Bay Networks of Billerica, Mass., is "only logical     
   given the critical nature" networks have taken on, said Nutmeg     
   Securities analyst Andy Schopick.                                  
                                                                       
   Moreover, it is good business sense. About 30 percent of           
   information technology budgets at corporations go toward           
   maintaining networks.                                              
                                                                       
   If network construction can be made simpler and if the many        
   products in the market can be made to work together more           
   efficiently, maintenance costs can drop.                           
                                                                       
   But should the opposite occur, and computer networks continue      
   becoming more complex, corporations will spend more dollars on     
   maintenance, leaving less money for new products.                  
                                                                       
   For the full article, see:                                         
;http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/051896/info4_4417.html         
    or                                                                 
;http://www.dowjones.com