Information on Converged Networks

How many of you out there have converged networks? And of those, how many of you have equipment from more than one vendor? Certainly a lot of you would like to. But, can you figure out how to make it work properly? Who do you ask?

Vendor A is not eager to tell you how to hook up your equipment to some component from Vendor B and vice versa.

We sometimes hear about information overload, but for all the information out there, there is still some missing.

A few years back, all the marketing materials claimed that convergence was going to lead to “open” systems. That sounded wonderful. You could match Nortel equipment with Avaya or Cisco equipment and everything would work wonderfully. Well, as most of you know, it is not that easy. In fact, it is usually difficult and often impossible. There are some technical reasons for this, but that will have to wait for another article.

End users are blasted with information from a variety of vendors, primarily their current equipment providers. However, there is very little or no talk about how an organization can converge, say, a Nortel voice network, with a Cisco data network.

Each vendor wants the whole network. The reality is, however, that this is unlikely to happen in most organizations.

An end user in Pennsylvania recently told me he has exactly that scenario. The voice people are trying to remain loyal to Nortel. However, the data people are loyal Cisco fans. Now Cisco is banging on the door, trying to sell a total Cisco VoIP solution. The telecom manager, a Nortel veteran, wants to keep his Nortel voice platform. However, he is left clamoring for information on how to make these two work together effectively.

He says the Cisco data network is not going away. And if he has his way, the Nortel voice network is a permanent fixture. But, neither vendor is anxious to help him make them work together.

It seems to me that both vendors are missing out on opportunities. They have loyal customers who they are ignoring because they want the whole cake. They don’t seem to recognize that a lot of slices can make for a very big cake.