Cascade and PSI Sign $10 Million Contract (fwd)
Gleason Sackman
From: Kimberly Brown <br...@psi.com>
To: com-...@psi.com
Subject: Cascade and PSI Sign $10 Million Contract
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CASCADE COMMUNICATIONS SIGNS $10 MILLION CONTRACT
WITH PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL
- Cascade to Deliver a Nationwide Frame Relay Network -
WESTFORD, Mass., September 14, 1992 - Cascade Communications today
announced that Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSI), a
value-added network service provider, has signed a five year contract to
purchase $10 million worth of Cascade's STDX(TM) family of frame relay
switches. PSI will use the STDX to offer a nationwide interorganizational
frame relay service called, InterFrame(SM) . Additionally, PSI will enhance
the operation and performance of PSINet(R), its expansive router based
network that supports over 2,000 organization's access to the Internet
and public electronic mail services.
FRAME RELAY ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
PSINet is the nation's largest provider of commercial Internet services
and serves thousands of customers throughout the U.S., including Hewlett
Packard, Pacific Gas & Electric, American Express and Wal-Mart. PSINet
uses the common network language protocols of TCP/IP and OSI to directly
connect customers to the global Internet, and to tens of thousands of other
organizations across the globe. PSINet currently utilizes hundreds of
routers from several vendors in its network.
InterFrame is the next generation wide area internetwork service that
gives PSIs' customers' LAN or hosts access to the global Internet, using
state of the art Frame Relay technology from Cascade to access the power
of the TCP/IP Internet. By lowering the cost of network connections,
PSI expects to greatly expand its service offerings and its customer base.
"Cascade's STDX stands alone among frame relay switches in its ability to
address all the requirements of complex internetworking," said Martin
Schoffstall, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Performance
Systems International, Inc. "Multi-tiered architectures for public
internetworks based on frame relay will clearly scale up, router-only
networks will not. Router-only networks will soon become the hiking
trails of the Internet -- functional, but not for high traffic
day-to-day use."
INTERNETWORKING WITH FRAME RELAY
PSI will use Cascade STDX frame relay switches to increase the performance
and simplify the management of PSI's router internetwork. Routers located
at customer sites will be directly connected to an STDX frame relay
switch, which functions like a hub to aggregate the customer connections.
This traffic is then sent from the STDX to the PSINet backbone router --
over a single line -- thereby using only one port on the backbone router.
The STDX switches also will minimize the number of connections between
its PSINet backbone routers. Routers supported by the frame relay switches
will no longer need physical connections to every other router on the
backbone, instead they will benefit from frame relay's "virtual connections"
that are established on an as needed basis.
THE STDX SWITCH: A FRAME RELAY GATEWAY
Current PSINet and InterFrame customers will benefit from
unique STDX capabilities due to Cascade's ability to provide a
communications gateway between customer premise equipment
(CPE) from multiple vendors and between networks and routers running
different protocols. The gateway lets non-frame relay routers connect to and
take advantage of all the benefits and features of frame relay due to its
protocol translation capability.
The STDX is the industry's first frame relay switch to provide a gateway
function between the industry-standard Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and the
recent Internet standard for multi-protocol routing over frame relay,
RFC 1294.
The SNMP-based Cascade View Network Management Station software
for the STDX will be incorporated into PSI's SNMP-based network
management system. This provides a seamless integration of the STDX
network into the existing management structure.
"PSI has a long track record of leadership in providing electronic services
to the commercial marketplace and this endorsement solidifies Cascade's
reputation as the Frame Relay switch for Internetworking," said Desh
Deshpande, Cascade's Vice President of Marketing and Customer Service.
"Cascade's STDX provides PSI with the next-generation of frame relay
networking technology, enabling the network to continue to expand while
supporting all of PSINet's existing network hardware and technology
investments.
# # # #
Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSI), headquartered in Reston,
Virginia, is a value-added internetworking services provider with a wide
spectrum of services for the individual and corporate user of electronic
information. Services range from electronic mail products to turnkey
integration of local area networks into the PSINet wide area network
system and the Internet.
Cascade Communications Corp., located in Westford, Massachusetts, brings
the optimal solutions to today's LAN/WAN interconnect needs. Founded
in 1990 by an experienced team of data communications professionals, the
company is backed by leading venture capital firms, including ABS Ventures,
Charles River Partnership, Matrix Partners, Sigma Partners, Bessemer
Ventures and Advent International.
All brands, products and service names mentioned are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners.
For further information contact:
Joann Anderson
Copithorne & Bellows
(617) 252-0606
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