Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta
In May we learned from Peter Chai, vice president and general manager of 3Com Asia-Pacific, that 3Com had opted to buy Huawei's share in the two companies' joint venture, built in 2003.
The new company, which is now fully owned by 3Com, is known as H3C. Based in China, it specializes in developing and manufacturing enterprise networking gears such as routers and switches.
The contract between the two companies specifically disallows Huawei to enter the market in these product areas for 18 months after the buyout. To Huawei, however, this provision does not matter much -- at least for now.
As Huawei corporate communication director Ross Gan told the Post in a separate, informal interview earlier in Jakarta, his company does not think that IP routers and switches are their cup of tea, anyway. Their focus is more on the carrier industry.
According to 3Com president and CEO Edgar Masri, who attended a press event in Singapore earlier this month, the US$900 million acquisition has secured the company's place as the world's number-two vendor for enterprise switching equipment, after Cisco Systems.
In a room filled with IT journalists from India to Australia and to China, 3Com Asia-Pacific executives announced the completion of the H3C integration. This means that today, 3Com marketing and support teams as well as its distribution channels will also be selling H3C products.
Controlling more than 30 percent of the Chinese market, where the company says it matches Cisco Systems in size, 3Com's next main target is to conquer as much as possible of the rest of the Asia-Pacific. In this, Gene Ng has been appointed country manager of a number of states, including Indonesia.
It is going to be tough, of course, as Cisco is still by and large the king of IP networking gears worldwide. However, 3Com is confident that it has a five-to-one advantage in labor expenses from its H3C acquisition.
""We have 2,700 engineers in China, and we go to India to source the software,"" said Chai.
3Com Asia-Pacific's technical director, Orcun Tezel, added that the company's decision to use Open Source will contribute to expediting growth.
""We started with only seven independent partners who supplied the applications for our open source blades, but now the number has grown to 83,"" he said.
All these factors have enabled the company to offer great networking appliances at lower prices.
Business challenges for the network have also evolved. In addition to increasing internal and external threats such as spyware, legal requirements and virus attacks, there is a growing convergence of services and applications. The combined range of products from 3Com and H3C will meet the needs of both small and medium businesses as well as large enterprises.
How strong is 3Com in Indonesia? They have a number of customers in the banking, education and other industries.
Just last week, PT Agung Mas Prima announced it had formed a partnership with 3Com and PT Telkom to provide solutions for companies with operations that covered expansive areas of Indonesia.
Agung Mas' main solution is the Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN) service, which provides companies with a secure and high-bandwidth tunnel on the public network. This tunnel, for example, allows stock exchanges in the U.S. to have access to the latest quotes over an Ethernet infrastructure.
However, networks are becoming the backbones of more varied operations around the world. Who would think that a robust network could be necessary at a equine racetrack?
During the 3Com media forum in Singapore, the company also invited three customers to provide their testimonies, and Mark Eaves from the Sydney Turf Club (STC) in Australia made an interesting presentation.
STC's advanced network infrastructure has to support a broad variety of users, including stewards, officials, bookmakers, punters, partygoers, the media -- including TV, celebrities, police, security, doctors, veterinarians, trainers and jockeys.
There are also the websites, event venues, radar, weather stations, electronic track watering, live Internet streaming, satellites digital surveillance, electronic displays, cash registers, virtual tie lines, access points, online payment gateways, online auctions -- the list can go on and on.
All these services are provided using 3Com's networking infrastructure, including 5500G core switches, 4400 edge switches, wireless access points, wireless bridges, NBX and TippingPoint X505 IPS for network security.
When asked what will emerge as hot technology in the near future, Chai and Tezel both believe that integrating video in the IP networking infrastructure will top the list, along with gigabit switches and others. That is good tidings.
As a resident of Jakarta, I am impatiently waiting for large-scale deployment of video surveillance in the capital's public places. The city has long lost its ability to provide us with safety and security, and video surveillance will help mitigate the problem.
