Following a leaked memo from Metro Ethernet Networks president Phillppe Morin, Nortel Networks Ltd. today emailed journalists to say it has decided to "refocus" its investment from Carrier Ethernet Switch/Routers (CESRs) to next-generation packet optical transport equipment.
In a statement sent to Light Reading, Nortel says it is cutting back on the money it puts behind its Metro Ethernet Manager (MEM) products, Metro Ethernet Services Unit 1800s, and Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s.
To clarify, Nortel will still sell these bits of kit, but it will no longer have any big new features for, or revisions to, the CESR product lines, outside of a few periodic maintenance releases.
Why? Morin's memo offers a clue: "The overall market for Carrier Ethernet is not growing at anticipated rates and that will only worsen with the global economic downturn. We will continue to invest and increase our focus on maintaining our leadership in Optical."
Nortel says it will still serve, support, and ship products to its Carrier Ethernet installed base -- and it says that the CESR decision doesn't impact its Ethernet access and aggregation products, or its Enterprise ERS 8600 portfolio.
Nortel says it will focus its packet-optical and former CESR development dollars into two areas. First, it will keep adding packet capabilities to its Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 and Optical Metro 5000 series platforms. And it will invest in metro Ethernet access and aggregation solutions, as well as staying committed to its partners that make customer premises Ethernet gear (including ANDA Networks Inc. , Axerra Networks Inc. , and others).
"We are not abandoning our Carrier Ethernet technology innovation, but simply focusing our Carrier Ethernet investment away from the switch/router segment," Nortel's statement to Light Reading says. "This decision supports the goal to make Nortel a more focused company."
In his leaked memo, Morin's closing paragraph hinted at the jobs toll this move might take: "Even though this is the right business decision, I realize it's more tough news for employees and will impact the Carrier Ethernet team."
Sailboat, rest assured you will learn something. I cannot open your eyes any further. You will have to do the digging. Momentum will not be wide of the mark. Here is what I would predict: a major & deepening pull back on conventional network upgrade carrier spending for the very reasons alluded to in my original posting. Nortel is just part of a much bigger wholesale change in its early stages. Just because I refuse to show you exactly where to look does not imply that the initial stages of that change are not almost upon us. Just maybe not on your backdoor yet.
You are so mistaken. I did not forget anything about your original post or point.
Your point was to try to assert that the older way was dying and the new way was emerging... and that the solution was this photonic burst swithing.
Actually the move Nortel made had nothing to do this burst switching (which you know) and is more in keeping with what everyone is doing: converging transport to a common model of ethernet transport everywhere.. optics, copper, LH, local.. campus, everywhere.
However, you took it a step further and asserted that this trend was pointing to the new winning architecture would be this burst switching.
I think that is a leap. Reaching a conclusion based on prior ASSUMPTIONS and extrapolating from data a meaning that is not inherently there... and can only be found if you come from your pre-conceived assumptions / beliefs.
I simply asked you for any evidence that your assertions were based on reality and real market forces as opposed to wishful "slideware" or "marketecture"....
Classic responses from you.
Oh well. I was hoping to actually learn something of merit.
not just another marketing fellow pumping his own agenda.
Sailboat..I will of course in due course. You forget that while things will materialise for you and satisfy your curiousity that the original context of my comment had to do with a major trend shift away from independent ethernet switched layer (aka Nortel's announcement)to an integrated ethernet and optical transport layer 2 type solution.
Lol... that was my point entirely. YOU THOUGHT your post was fine. Except that you did not answer my question. You keep flogging this technology. but cannot point to a SINGLE instance of it being deployed.. by anyone.
And (laughing even harder now)... your assumption of who I am and what my interests are is so far off the mark that I almost dropped my coffee with my mirth.
No, it is not your job to do certain things. But when you publicly post in an open forum and consistently push a particular technology focus but give NO supporting evidence that it actually works as promised and no evidence of market traction, you have opened yourself up to questions challenging your assertions. Until you provide some evidence.. ANY evidence... that the solution works and proves in... you will be labeled as you are... a simple market "pumper".
This is not an unreasonable challenge given your assertion that this photonic burst switching is the winning architecture and solution for the marketplace for optical transport.
I also find it humorous how you always look at market news and due to your own filters in your thinking you always seem to believe that the news points to some kind of trend that requires your technology to "fix" the market or the network or the carrier, or what ever. Pretty obvious to a thinking person that you are stuck in your perception or your agenda for your products and not willing to see reality as it is clouded by our tinted glasses.
anyway, I tire of this conversation.
Come back when you have ANY evidence of ANY market acceptance of this solution. I said ANY. I did not say it must be a Tier 1.
I thought my previous reply was fine - rationale. It is not my business to tell anyone exactly where to look. I understand that many people have careers that are bound up in legacy networks and that is naturally a worry & concern. I get the sense that you work in a carrier environment perhaps you should check with your peers in other T1 carriers ??
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