IBM: Back Into networking

摘要

IBM, as a network vendor, has been riding a power roller coaster. It has gone from being the most powerful vendor to a big power loser and now back again as a big power gainer. It all began in 1976 when IBM introduced SNA and ushered in the first age of networking. For over 15 years, IBM used SNA to dominate the mainframe-based IT industry. "Open" was a word that did not exist within its vocabulary Its proprietary innovation continued into network management, with NetView in 1986,and then shortly thereafter with access services within the IBM Global Network (IGN). But then the IT industry changed, and customers got smarter. IP began to replace SNA and distributed computing was all the rage. IBM fought rather than joined the trend. It engineered IEEE 802.2 Token Ring for the LAN and ATM/OSI for the WAN, missing opportunity after opportunity to become a leader in the second age of networking. That legacy mentality finally ended in 1995 with IBM's commitment to open computing and networking.