Spurred by a re-evaluation of the immediate demand for – and deliverability of – Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology, Novell Inc has announced a wide-ranging, long-term agreement to integrate products and share technology with hub company SynOptics Communications Inc (CI No 2,241). Dubbed a Strategic Development Agreement, the pact provides for joint research and development, co-operation in training and customer support, and dedicated Novell engineering support to SynOptics. Novell’s decision to ally with SynOptics was underpinned by a revision of Asynchronous Mode’s delivery timetable, said a Novell spokesman. Its previous line was that Asynchronous Transfer was immature because it was waiting for hardware vendors to support it, a process it had formerly estimated would take another five years. But hardware developments and increased customer clamour for Asynchronous Transfer Mode today – particularly in the vertical markets of finance, insurance and medicine – has prompted a re-think. Novell is not in the business of Asynchronous Transfer, but its clients expect it to have a degree of visibility in the technology, commented a spokesman for Novell. The partnership is said by the pair to be in response to customer demand for the leading hub systems and networking companies to form a comprehensive strategy for migrating current local area and internetworks into next generation networks that take advantage of emerging switched communication technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer. SynOptics is the ninth firm to have a Strategic Development Agreement with Novell, and the first intelligent hub vendor.
LattisEngine/486
The agreement between the two companies is the latest development in a relationship dating back to 1988. Novell was among the first companies to build adaptor boards for connection from the desktop to SynOptics Ethernet hubs pre 10Base-T. And SynOptics is a member of the Novell Technical Support Alliance and both are founder members of the Desktop Management Task Force. SynOptics also added the LattisEngine/486, designed to act as a network utility server enabling customers to distribute communications services such as NetWare routing, management and IBM host connections throughout a network.
