3Com Corp is getting impatient with the time it is taking corporate customers to adopt and deploy multimedia applications such as desktop videoconferencing, which will eat up lots of networking products, so it has launched an initiative to speed the process. In the first step of the initiative, the company is opening the 3Com Multimedia Laboratory as a testing ground for multimedia applications from the big players such as Microsoft Corp, Progressive Networks Inc, VDOnet Corp, Picturetel Corp and Siemens AG. 3Com recognizes that while multimedia applications such as interactive workspaces, video streaming and networked telephony, as well as videoconferencing, will open up new and improved methods of corporate communications, they put a whole new set of demands on corporate networks and the people running them, who don’t have the time to do their own testing. 3Com says it will help information technology staff by setting up pilots, running tests and publishing the results. The multi-million dollar laboratory will be able to model any type of network and enable managers to find out how the multimedia applications would affect their existing network and which parts of the network infrastructure to upgrade first.
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