Cabletron Convergence Survey Forecasts Explosive Growth in Inter-Site VoIP Within 12 Months.

Business/Technology Editors

CeBIT 2000

Hall 11, Booth E19

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2000

Over 80% of Participants Cite Linking Existing PBXs via VoIP vs.

PBX Replacement as Critical to Voice-over-IP Plans

In a Cabletron Systems sponsored customer survey of more than 100 network professionals from medium-to-large enterprises around the globe, existing PBX extension, rather than PBX replacement, was found to be a fundamental element in plans for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation and deployment within the next 12 months. The web-based survey findings are consistent with Cabletron's Inherent Internetworking(TM) strategy, and underpin the organization's immediate focus on IP telephony solutions (see associated release: Cabletron Systems Unveils Inherent Internetworking - A Comprehensive Strategy for Voice, Video and Data Convergence).

Participants in Cabletron's survey spanned vertical markets ranging from manufacturing and education through healthcare and construction. Participants were located across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, with 40 percent reporting annual revenues of more than $100 million, 61 percent employing staff of between 1,000 - 100,000 and 24 percent having over 100 domestic and international locations.

Results confirmed that 59 percent of respondents were against replacing their current PBX system, whereas 80 percent showed a strong interest in using VoIP to link existing PBXs located at different sites. Many users expect to complete these initial VoIP plans by the end of 2000, clearly highlighting the growing acceptance of IP telephony as a viable technology for business applications.

"This global survey of medium-to-large corporations' plans for voice and data convergence positively underlines Cabletron's Inherent Internetworking strategy, and shows that the deployment of VoIP gateway technology will begin to impact a large proportion of Enterprise networks in the coming 12-18 months," said Ray Wright, Cabletron's senior director, voice and convergence solutions. "Cabletron is taking an open and standards-based approach to voice convergence because we understand the desires and requirements of the Enterprise market. We are delivering gateway solutions now, and are collaborating with industry-leading partners to provide a set of targeted voice solutions such as VoIP call centers and click-to-talk applications as our customers needs evolve over the coming months. Inherent Internetworking delivers this vision, and these large multi-national enterprise customers have indicated that Cabletron is delivering solutions that are in tune with their business demands."

Cabletron's Inherent Internetworking strategy builds on core functionality found within its range of SmartSwitch Routers (SSRs) and SmartSwitch families. Quality-of-Service (QoS), prioritization, security schemes, and bandwidth management, along with embedded management and accounting capabilities, are built into Cabletron's switch and router products. Unlike many competitive strategies, Cabletron's focus is to protect user's technology investments by providing them with choices to expand and migrate to voice and video-based applications.

In addition to preliminary results, respondents confirmed the major motivators driving convergence implementation to be cost savings (73 percent), bandwidth efficiency (57 percent) and increased services (86 percent). Each prove particularly pertinent when combining videoconferencing and unified messaging applications, cited as the next two major secondary applications for IP.

"Cabletron's recent business unit realignment has created Enterasys Networks specifically to focus on the needs of Enterprise global 2000 customers. As the results of this survey show, users are ready today to implement VoIP where it makes business sense. By aligning specific resources to this market, Enterasys is in a unique position to better understand and meet their convergent network requirements." commented Henry Fiallio, President of Enterasys Networks.

About Cabletron

Cabletron Systems is a holding company for four of the most innovative, customer-focused organizations in the telecommunications and networking industry:

Enterasys Networks is the only provider of total network solutions singularly focused on enterprise-class customers. By optimizing enterprise network solutions for e-business applications, and by providing global 24 x7 service and support, Enterasys provides competitive advantage through IT infrastructure to enterprise customers.

Riverstone Networks is focused on emerging content and infrastructure service provider markets. Starting from the customer premise, ranging across the metro network, into the hosting center and across WAN backbones, Riverstone networking equipment e-nables an end-to-end service-rich infrastructure. Its solutions enable service providers to provide enhanced services to their customers. Focused exclusively on service provider markets- particularly the data center needs of co-location, content hosting and ASPs, as well as the infrastructure needs of ISPs, MSOs and metro network providers.

GlobalNetwork Technology Services (GNTS) is one of the largest independent network-consulting firms in the world. With consultants in more than 66 locations spanning the globe, GNTS provides network infrastructure solutions that optimize application availability and performance to enterprise and service provider clients.

Aprisma Management Technologies is the leading provider of intuitive multi-vendor management solutions that meet the service level requirements of enterprise and service provider customers. Aprisma pioneered the field of intelligent network management in 1990, with the introduction of its flagship SPECTRUM software suite. With support for a rapidly growing list of over 500 products from the industry's leading network and telecommunications vendors, Aprisma is at the forefront in integrated network and service level management.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a decade under the symbol CS, Cabletron is an S&P 500 index company. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at http://www.cabletron.com.