Wednesday, 19 July 2006

ATCA Platform Providers Battle IBM BladeCenter T for Telco Market

Competitors in the carrier-grade, blade-based server market for the telecom industry are gearing up for a major battle, according to IT research firm In-Stat. The contestants are industry leaders including Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Radisys, and...

Competitors in the carrier-grade, blade-based server market for the telecom industry are gearing up for a major battle, according to IT research firm In-Stat. The contestants are industry leaders including Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Radisys, and Sun Microsystems on the one side and IBM being the sole contester on the other side.

In-Stat research’s, "A Comprehensive Comparison of Major AdvancedTCA Platforms Versus IBM’s BladeCenter T", compares the major carrier-grade, blade-based platforms being offered to the telecom industry. It includes analysis of the competing technologies and products and of major vendor strategies. These platforms compete for the approximately USD 90 billion that service providers spend annually on network equipment

IBM is offering BladeCenter T to its customers to compete with AdvancedTCA (ATCA) platform. The ATCA platform is built on an open industry standard, while IBM’s entry is a beefed-up version of its enterprise-class BladeCenter.

"Although the IBM BladeCenter T may have a few disadvantages, IBM will present the BladeCenter series T platform to prospective customers as a product offering similar to AdvancedTCA platforms," says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. "IBM is leveraging the strength it has with its Telco customer back office systems by offering a companion Central Office product known as the BladeCenter T."

IBM BladeCenter T is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform, designed to help lower total cost of ownership. It features integrated servers, storage and networking, fault-tolerant features, optional hot-swappable redundant AC or DC power supplies and cooling, and built-in systems management resources in a 20" deep chassis.

But Telcos are now beginning to demand open, cost-effective, high performance, nect-generation, carrier-grade platforms in order to improved performance and innovation to their customers at a reasonable cost.

Platform providers feel that Telecom Equipment Makers are best served if they can minimise their cost by acquiring COTS components to put together an application-ready platform rather than developing a platform using proprietary technology.

In-Stat said that ATCA platform providers offer Telcos and their customers reinforced protection of their long-term investment when introducing new functionality in their networks.