British Telecommunications Plc says it is working with both Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc to develop products that will provide customers the ability to manage complex internetworks consisting of local area networks and British Telecom’s internetwork services. The phone company reckons that while this evolution of integrated management is seen as a critical need for users, it has yet to be fully addressed by network service providers. British Telecom says it plans to develop links between the two companies’ local network management systems – Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView and Sun’s SunNet Manager, and its own Concert system – and chose those two companies as its first partners because it believes that between them they control about 60% of the local network management market. British Telecom says it is considering provision of local management services in conjunction with its portfolio of managed communications services once the new products are finished: it sees commercial products and services in early 1994. The partners will co-operate on development of products that enable users to monitor remotely and manage in an integrated fashion, both their local and British Telecom-provided wide area network services. The computer companies will develop interfaces between their respective management systems and Concert, which will conform to the Network Management Forum’s OminiPoint specifications, based on the Common Management Interface Protocol, CMIP. The claimed benefits include rapid identification and isolation of faulty local network segments, dynamic control of network capacity, and integrated monitoring of performance parameters of both the internetwork and the local network. Users will be able to order additional services and report faults direct to British Telecom service centres, and its Syncordia Corp will also offer facilities management services.
