A total of eight computer and telecommunication companies are to join forces in an effort to speed up the specification of network management standards. The line-up to date numbers AT&T Co, British Telecommunications Plc, Amdahl Corp, Northern Telecom Ltd, STC Plc, Telecom Canada, Hewlett-Packard Co and Unisys Corp. Work on network management definition has lagged behind other aspects of open systems interconnection standardisation due partly to the complexity of the area, but also because of a lack of foresight. Users today can interlink their multi-vendor networks but are unable to manage data flows with sufficient accuracy. Work on critical areas including security, configuration and fault management is still at an early draft stage with an estimated three years to go before product come onto the market. Within the eight companies there are already a couple of network management alliances – Hewlett-Packard is teamed with Northern Telecom on Hewlett’s OpenView; while AT&T is ascloseasthis to Amdahl on telecommunications, and has an agreement with Cincom Systems Inc – not in the group at present to add SNA compatibility with AT&T’s own Unified Network Management Architecture (CI No 950), to make it more competitive with the current market leader, IBM’s NetView. Further details on the new organisation and its plans are due to be be announced on Wednesday.
