MCI Communications Corp, Washington and Sun Microsystems Inc’s SunConnect communications software subsidiary have announced a development agreement to target the wide area network management market. MCI’s support is a boost for SunConnect. While SunNet Manager is widely used in local network-based and local network interconnect environments, it has so far had little support in wide area networking and telecommunications, where Hewlett-Packard Co’s OpenView is seen to have won greater interest. The system will also compete with British Telecommunications Plc’s Concert and AT&T Co’s Accumaster systems – although British Telecom has just announced alliances with both SunConnect and Hewlett (CI No 2,134), as well as the Hermes-based enterprise-wide management systems that is under development by Infonet Corp and Microsoft Corp. The two companies say they plan to incorporate SunNet Manager, SunConnect’s distributed network management system, into HyperStream, the name umbrella name that MCI gives to its Frame Relay, Switched Multi-Megabit Data Services and broadband ISDN networks. The idea is to use HyperStream’s customer network management service, HyperScope, with the SunNet Manager software to monitor and control high-speed wide area virtual data networks. The two companies claim the agreement will mean that customers switching from leased line services to local network interconnect systems will be able to maintain the level of control over their internetworks to which they have become accustomed. SunNet Manager includes a set of applications for automated fault isolation, diagnosis and network monitoring and control. A range of third party applications is also available, providing analysis capabilities and visual displays.
