January 26, 1998 'O pen' Remote Access Systems Gain Small, midsized businesses lured by ease of integration with current environments By Beth Davis indows NT-based remote-access systems and other "open" access servers are gaining popularity among small and midsized businesses looking for a relatively simple way to plug users into the company network. One market player, Ariel Corp., is boosting the performance and scalability of its NT-based remote access server, supporting as many as 240 users on a single card. This week, Ariel will introduce the Rascal RS2000, a single PC Card that includes 24 56-Kbps modem ports, plus ISDN access and analog remote dial-in and LAN dial-out. The RS2000 pops into a single slot on an NT machine, eliminating the need for a communications board tha t plugs into the server and then links to a modem chassis on the back end, says Steve Curtin, marketing manager at Ariel, in Cranbury, N.J. Access systems that run on standard operating systems such as NT or Novell's NetWare are easier to integrate into customers' current network environments than proprietary remote-access systems from companies such as Ascend, 3Com, and Shiva, according to the open systems vendors. "If you know NT, you know Rascal," Curtin says. Chick Green, IS manager at GT Development Corp., a truck parts maker in Seattle, chose Rascal for just that reason. GT Development's home workers dial in to both the corporate network and the Internet over the Ariel system. "Remote access is an arena that is still somewhat unfamiliar to me, and I didn't want to have to learn an entirely new operating system," Green says. GT Development isn't alone. A recent study by the Yankee Group s hows that by the year 2000, 47% of remote-access equipment used by small and medium-sized businesses will be based on NT, NetWare, or another standard operating system-up from 38% today. There is no shortage of vendors. Besides Ariel, Access Beyond (which last month merged with Hayes Microcomputer Products), Multi-Tech Systems, Comtrol, RASCom, and Stallion Technologies offer standards-based remote-access systems. Also, Microsoft and Novell offer remote-access systems based on their operating systems. These access servers can also be less expensive than proprietary serv- ers, says Yankee Group analyst Kitty Weldon. For one thing, existing servers can be used to build the remote-access system. As GT Development's Green attests, access servers based on familiar operating systems don't require as much training. Still, Weldon notes, standards-based servers aren't for everyone, mostly because they can't yet scale to handle many more than 200 users. "There's a fear that you're going to overload the ser ver," she says. GT Development's Green agrees. "Proprietary systems have an edge with scalability," he says. "My limit is going to probably be about 48 lines, but I don't need to serve several hundred users." Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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