[1590] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
EINET
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Mandelbaum)
Mon Nov 25 10:10:15 1991
To: com-priv@psi.com, nren-discuss@psi.com
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 91 10:06:07 -0500
From: Richard Mandelbaum <rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu>
I append the text of the article in Network World
Groups mull plan for U.S. business net
By Barton Crockett Senior Editor
Copyright Network World Nov 18,1991
AUSTIN, A Texas cconsortium of leading corporations last
week announced plans for a nationwide network designed to
spur intercompany communications and significantly boost
U.S competitiveness.
Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.
(MCC),based here, said it will oversee development and
operation of the Enterprise Integration Network (ElNet), a
nonprofit router-based net work that will support a range
of commercial services to help companies interact
electronically.
While ElNet will be architecturally similar to the
Internet, it will carry commercial traffic and offer
better security features, according to Allan Schiffman,
chief technical officer at Enterprise Integration
Technologies Corp., a research organization in PaloAlto,
Calif., that is helping to design EINet.
Additionally, MCC has pledged to use EINet as a test
bed for new application-level interoperability services
and technologies.
Four leading U.S. industrial organizations last week
pledged
support for EINet, arguing that it could play a crucial
role in promoting U.S. point of presence. MCC will supply
the competitiveness. could play a crucial role in
promoting U.S.competitiveness.
"We spend a lot of time in America beating ourselves
over the head about the Japanese," said George Kuper,
president of the Industrial Technology Institute, a
manufacturing research group in Ann Arbor,Mich., and one
of the four EINet promoters. "We have a far greater
command of information and communications technology [than
the Japanese] and the power of a diversified supplier
base."
"If we can link those things, it will be the salvation
of the American industrial base," Kuper added.
The other groups promoting EINet are the Iacocca
Institute of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., the
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences in Ann Arbor
and Sematech, a semiconductor research consortium here.
These groups plan to use EINet internally and encourage
its use among their members and associates.
MCC also expects its owners and associates to use
EINet. MCC is owned by 22 corporations, including Andersen
Consulting, Bell Communications Research and Digital
Equipment Corp. It has more than 50 associate members and
government sponsors, including AT&T, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory and United Technologies Corp.
ElNet will be run by MCC's new Enterprise Integration
division, which will receive about a quarter of the
consortium's $55 million budget and lead MCC development
efforts for such technologies as distributed data
management systems for enterprise nets.
MCC officials plan to cut over ElNet in March. The
officials said many details of the ElNet architecture will
be finalized once a service provider is selected.
Users will access the net via private lines from their
premises to the nearest point of presence. MCC will supply
the software to use EINet services. Initially, EINet will
support both electronic messaging and bulletin board
services. MCC, for example, will electronically publish
listings and analyses of major interoperability standards
and projects worldwide.
Additionally, MCC plans to offer security services,
including user authentication and management of public and
private encryption keys. MCC also intends to offer
interoperability services for application-level protocols
and to link EINet with an X.500 directory being developed
by DARPA on a pilot basis for the Internet.
By the second quarter of 1992, MCC plans to let
companies offer commercial value-added services over
EINet, such as publication of electronic catalogs for
ordering goods and services. MCC also intends to offer
software distribution services and a full array of
electronic data interchange services. The consortium will
expand EINet's slate of interoperability services over
time, as technologies advance.
Service charges
User companies with more than $500 million in yearly
revenue will pay $60,000 annually to access EINet, while
companies with $50 million to $500 million in annual
revenue will pay $30,000 per year and companies with less
than $50 million in annual revenue will pay $10,000 per
year. Users will pay extra for transmission services.
Bob Wilson, marketing coordinator for MCC's Enterprise
Integration division, said it should cost less than
$20,000 annually for dedicated 56K bit/sec access to
EINet.
