3Com turns more firms into Gigabit Ethernet networking

Businesses that need to connect groups of people affordably, yet still support bandwidth-hungry applications in such operations as finance, human resources, marketing, manufacturing, education and communication, have their answer with 3Com’s new Gigabit Ethernet networking solution. As the market leader in Gigabit Ethernet switching over copper, 3Com Corp. has announced it is aggressively driving down the cost of Gigabit Ethernet technology, shattering the price barrier with a solution that is priced 30 percent to 50 percent lower than the competition. Building on the new networking solutions for businesses of all sizes, 3Com paves the way for all companies to implement a Gigabit Ethernet high-performance networking solution that is easy to install, maintain and own.

"3Com is the only company to offer a complete end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet networking solution that brings rich connectivity to users," said Tom Werner, vice president and general manager, Business Connectivity Group, 3Com. "We will continue to drive the transition to Gigabit Ethernet with affordable, radically simple solutions, just as we developed and still lead the Ethernet and Fast Ethernet markets."

Today, 3Com extends its end-to-end Gigabit family with new server connectivity that speeds up business applications for higher productivity while saving companies the costly aggravation of having to deploy more expensive, complex networking products. The 3Com® solution includes the new 3Com 10/1000BASE-T PCI-X server network interface card (NIC) and two new modules – 3Com SuperStack®3 Switch 4900 4-port 1000BASE-T and SuperStack 3 Switch 4900 4-port 1000 BASE-LX – for the SuperStack 3 Switch 4900 product family.

High bandwidth application

"The growth of high bandwidth applications, such as real time video, has demanded vastly faster networks. Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP include support for these high bandwidth requirements," said Dwight Krossa, director, Windows Marketing, at Microsoft Corp. "We are excited to work with 3Com on their release of their Gigabit card, which provides Gigabit speed networking along with advanced features like processor offload."

3Com delivers on its strategy as the one end-to-end Gigabit vendor in the industry, offering both network interface products and sophisticated – yet simple-to-use – SuperStack 3 switches in managed and unmanaged configurations that free companies to focus on their business.

According to market analyst firm Cahners In-stat, 3Com is the market leader in Gigabit over copper switch port shipments. Due to a surge in the fourth quarter of 2000 around the delivery of new 3Com switches for businesses of all sizes, 3Com’s worldwide market share soared to 28.6 percent.

"Gigabit Ethernet is becoming necessary to accommodate the ever-growing and increasing congested network activity and process-intensive server transactions," said Joel Conover, senior analyst with Current Analysis, the international market intelligence company. "3Com is driving Gigabit Ethernet adoption by delivering high-performance end-to-end Gigabit solutions with aggressive pricing."