13 May 1999
Token Ring vendor Madge Networks has launched an ambitious venture torsonal fortune. move from being purely a product provider to predominantly a service provider within three to four years.
Founder, Robert Madge blazed into London last week to launch his company into the managed network services business, in a move partly aimed at addressing his declining fortune.
In the space of two years Madge's personal fortune has plummeted by £150m to a paltry £50m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. This drop has been linked to the slow-down in the Token Ring market.
Madge Managed Network Services will offer IP-based virtual private networking (VPN) and web hosting to enterprises, leveraging network facilities Madge Networks acquired when it bought Gains International in February. As well as Gains' broker and financial institution customers, Madge Networks will target its current base of Token Ring clients wishing to upgrade their web presence.
"In the past Madge had a religious adherence to a certain technology, but this is not the case now. It is technology agnostic," explained Madge.
"Our customers have been asking us for help to migrate to IP."
Despite this assertion, Robert Madge advocates that his customers should upgrade to High-Speed Token Ring - rather than to ATM or Gigabit Ethernet - as the most trouble-free migration path.
Among Madge Networks' first orders of business is to bolster Gains' TDM network, upon which a Nortel Networks ATM backbone is being built.
PORTFOLIO OF SERVICES
Complex web hosting - to allow firms to exploit the web while reducing infrastructure and management costs.
Managed security - a range of services tailored to secure data against unauthorised access.
Remote corporate access - fully managed, high-speed dial-up access to corporate network resources.
VPN voice services - fully managed, permanent person-to-person, international private voice circuits, with choice of tailored bandwidths.
Circuit management services - managed private data networks.
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