WorldCom expands Internet network in Canada
WorldCom, a global communications company for the digital generation, last month announced the completion of an upgrade to its network in Canada to OC-48c by the end of 2000. With the completed deployment of OC-48c in Canada, WorldCom says it will carry 2.4Gbps, up from its former network speed of 622Mbps or OC-12 speeds. The upgrade is a four-time increase in the size of its current network. The company said upgrading to OC-48c will keep WorldCom ahead of customer demand for more bandwidth-intensive applications and greater connectivity options by giving business partners the fastest access services and connections available on the market. WorldCom is on the Web at www.worldcom.com.
IETF split on instant messaging
The Internet Engineering Task Force seems hopelessly split on the issue of instant messaging standardization, making it likely that the international standards body will develop several communications protocols and let the market decide which is best. At a meeting held in San Diego Dec. 15, the IETF working group on instant messaging backed the idea of a common message format that can be used with different transport protocols. Gateways between the transport protocols would ensure interoperability, which is not possible today among leading instant messaging systems from America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others. Earlier in the week, various camps within the IETF community debated the merits of three transport protocols that can be used for instant messaging. The three proposed transport protocols are: Presence and Instant Messaging (PRIM), a general-purpose protocol that runs directly over TCP/IP; SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), a telephony-focused approach; and IMXP, a messaging-focused approach that uses an XML encoding scheme.
Hitachi announces “Just In Time” storage
Hitachi Data Systems Corp. said last month that it will announce a “Just In Time” storage program aimed at helping large companies and service providers increase storage capacity. The Just In Time Storage Suite works with the company’s largest Freedom Storage Lightning 9900 Storage arrays and lets system administrators deploy more storage as their requirements increase. Hitachi is at www.hds.com.
3Com, Broadcom team up on LANs
3Com Corp. and high-speed communications chip maker Broadcom Corp. last month said they have signed a broad agreement to accelerate the deployment of high-speed LAN technology. The companies intend to develop new products, cross-license technologies, undertake joint sales and marketing, and enter into a supply-chain agreement. The idea is to boost the deployment of gigabit Ethernet in business networks. 3Com is at www.3com.com; Broadcom can be found at www.broadcom.com.
Sun extends StorEdge support
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced this month that it is extending support for Sun StorEdge T3 array for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows NT, Hewlett-Packard Co.’s HP-UX and IBM Corp.’s AIX and Linux system platforms. Sun customers now have the benefit of the Sun StorEdge T3 array not only on Sun’s own Solaris platform but also on other platforms they may use in their organizations, said Bill Groth, director of enterprise storage product marketing for Sun Network Storage, in a statement. The Sun StorEdge T3 arrays came out in July 2000. They have an expansion range of 163GB to 169 terabytes, depending on the model. Sun designed the Sun StorEdge T3 array for continuous availability with no single point of failure and has features such as redundant hot swap components, dual paths to the host and
