Posted: 03/2000
Enron Advances Real-Time Bandwidth Trading with Sun
Microsystems Deal
By Khali Henderson
s part of its ongoing effort to deliver real-time provisioning of network bandwidth, Enron Broadband Services Inc. (www.enron.net), a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp, announced in mid-January an agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc. (www.sun.com).
Under the agreement, Sun will help Enron build out the footprint of its next-generation broadband infrastructure--the Enron Intelligent Network (EIN), which is based on fiber, servers, pooling points and Enron's Broadband Operating System (BOS).
The Enron BOS, which is being developed on Sun's Solaris Operating Environment, allows real-time provisioning of bandwidth across multiple networks. It includes intelligent technologies that will provide a variety of features, such as forward reservation of bandwidth, real-time provisioning, dynamic content management and security.
In May, Enron, a telecom industry outsider, forced the consideration of commodity trading of bandwidth with its proposal for a real-time trading system. The company announced its first successful trade of a New York-Los Angeles circuit with Global Crossing Ltd. (www.globalcrossing.com) in early December (see "Resale Channel," February 2000 issue of PHONE+ magazine).
Enron and Sun also plan to collaborate to optimize the EIN for use with the Sun platform, which the companies say will lead to accelerated deployment of Enron's BOS.
In addition, the two companies will promote EIN services to address the needs of enterprises, software developers and service providers for the delivery of broadband applications at guaranteed service levels.
"This alliance with Sun, along with Enron's initiatives in bandwidth trading and intermediation, will bring fundamental changes to the Internet," said Jeff Skilling, Enron president and COO said in a press statement. "What this will mean for corporations is a new generation of mission-critical broadband applications that can be delivered to Internet customers in a secure, guaranteed quality-of-service manner."
Enron will purchase 18,000 Netra carrier-grade and enterprise servers and associated storage and services from Sun to expand the EIN. The Sun systems will be used to expand aggressively the footprint of the EIN to more than 2,000 points of presence (PoPs) worldwide. In addition, Sun will purchase broadband video streaming services from Enron to support worldwide operations.
