IPv6 modules knock Foundry into shape
Standard to bring added functionality to vendor's offerings
Foundry Networks is to attack the WAN market with a range of T1/E1 routers, and is talking up new modules that bring IPv6 functionality to its BigIron MG8 and NetIron 40G chassis.
IPv6 is an IETF standard that provides a larger IP address space than the existing IPv4 standard, which is capable of providing only 4.2 billion IP addresses. As the number of individual devices connected to the internet grows, v6 will become increasingly important.
"IPv6 will be ubiquitous within three to eight years," said Bob Schiff, director of marketing at Foundry. "There are a lot of applications that will need to be changed to work with IPv6, and it costs money to do so. But the change-over seems to be happening a lot faster than expected."
One Foundry reseller, who wished to remain anonymous, said IPv6 has been a requirement on all of the tenders it has received in the past year.
"Most of the vendors have been offering exactly the same future-proofing; they're all doing the same thing," he said.
However, Schiff claimed that 3Com and Enterasys do not have v6 offerings, Extreme has demonstrated some hardware and, he alleged, Cisco's Catalyst 6500 supports v6, but with a 50 per cent performance degradation.
Foundry's WAN access routers, dubbed AccessIron, are capable of supporting between two and 16 T1 or E1 ports.
Vendors that provide E1 kit include 3Com, Cisco and Adtran, which recently launched its range of LAN switches in the UK.
Andy Palmer, UK managing director of Foundry, said: "This is not a departure for us. It's supporting other parts of the product portfolio and allows us more account control.
"Large and medium enterprises will see this sort of hardware as a corporate asset rather than something the carrier should own. It's quite natural."
Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at EuroLAN Research, said too many vendors have left the market open to Cisco in the past.
"This is a lucrative market, but service providers make up only 20 per cent of Foundry's business," he said.
"I would have to question whether they really have the bandwidth to sell WAN routers into this market."