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ENRON INTELLIGENT NETWORK LIT, TESTED AND READY TO DELIVER NEW WORLD INTERNET APPLICATIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, April 19, 1999
PORTLAND, Ore. – Enron Communications, Inc. announced today that the Enron Intelligent Network (EIN), a new Internet application delivery platform, is lit and ready to deliver the first in a suite of new world network applications developed by the company, including ePowered Media Cast™ and ePowered Media Transport™. The first applications are targeted at the broadcast and content provider markets.
Enron Communications, Inc. earlier this year announced the development of the Enron Intelligent Network, a highly reliable, self-managing, self-restoring network of networks that overlays the public Internet to deliver bandwidth-intensive applications to the enterprise desktop.
“With virtually unlimited bandwidth and built-in intelligence, the Enron Intelligent Network bridges the chasm between expensive dedicated networks and the public Internet,” said Joe Hirko, president and CEO of Enron Communications. “The EIN, which was developed to improve the experience of the Internet, allows businesses – from the largest enterprise to the smallest start-up – to have flexible access to a powerful new breed of Internet services we call ePowered™ applications.”
The EIN is based on a unique infrastructure that utilizes Pure IP™ technology, patented InterAgent® middleware and a distributed server architecture developed in alliance with Sun Microsystems. Unlike the current Internet model, the EIN is a collection of software routers operating at the application layer. It extends far beyond the classic definitions of static infrastructure, fiber, switches and billing systems.
“This radical new approach provides a highly reliable pay-for-what-you-need, bandwidth-on-demand way to deliver data, streaming multimedia and other applications initially to business users,” Hirko said.
Pure IP™ The EIN is the only backbone network utilizing Pure IP (Internet Protocol) technology, which is acknowledged as the optimal network protocol for digital communications such as ePowered Media Cast. This architecture is most accurately characterized as “IP on glass,” which means that IP bits are placed directly on fiber for high speed communication to their ultimate destination, thereby eliminating intermediate protocols, simplifying the architecture, lowering costs, increasing reliability and reducing errors.
InterAgent® Riding on top of this Pure IP network is a control layer enabled by Enron Communications’ standards-based InterAgent technology. InterAgent is intelligent messaging and monitoring software that delivers a number of new property-based routing possibilities. By facilitating intelligent communications between servers, InterAgent ensures that digital content is routed efficiently and with absolute reliability. InterAgent is embedded on every server in the EIN and on the servers of Enron Communications’ distribution channels allowing for event messaging, usage-based metering and billing, directory services, bandwidth scheduling, and user-defined quality of service (QoS) to the desktop. In essence, InterAgent is the glue that ties the network hardware infrastructure and higher layer applications together.
Distributed Server Architecture: A key differentiator of the EIN is that it was designed to store or house information and application services just one hop away from end-users. Sun Microsystem servers are deployed throughout the EIN as well as in the points of presence (POPs) of distribution channel partners, all controlled by the InterAgent software. Reducing the number of links to the content being accessed maintains a fast response rate, prevents data degradation and offers access to tiered QoS levels to ensure a better user experience. The EIN supports application and content delivery at selected QoS levels by directing users to the appropriate server containing cached content.
“The rapid introduction and development of Enron’s Intelligent Network is a significant milestone in the availability of IP-based networked services,” said Bill Correll, worldwide market development manager for digital media and ecommerce, Sun Microsytems, Inc. “Media streaming, broadcast, ecommerce, and other mission critical, bandwidth intensive applications and services can now be effectively deployed by Enron Communications to bring unprecedented levels of value and utility to the Internet.”
Added Hirko, “In a very short time, Enron Communications has created strategic alliances with many of the world’s leading technology companies like Sun Microsystems, RealNetworks and Cisco Systems to design and deploy a Pure IP intelligent network architecture, develop and bring to market the initial offerings in a suite of applications, and recruit service provider, channel and content partners.”
See the Latest Enron Intelligent Network Optimized Applications: The first of Enron Communications' EIN optimized network-based applications, ePowered Media Cast and ePowered Media Transport, will be on display at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual conference in Las Vegas, April 18-21, 1999. ePowered Media Cast delivers streaming video to the desktop at an average bit-rate speed of 200 kbps - 10 times faster than what is currently available on the public Internet, and ePowered Media Transport enables video content producers and video distributors to securely move their media from city to city in real time without loss to picture quality.
About Enron Communications, Inc.: Enron Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp. (NYSE: ENE), is a leader in the delivery of high-quality, high-bandwidth business information and applications. Enron Communications is building a long-haul fiber-optic network on strategic routes throughout the United States to create a data-centric national Pure IP backbone known as the Enron Intelligent Network. It is extending the capabilities of that network through agreements with ISPs and carriers seeking to generate new revenue sources and improved services.
Enron Corp. is one of the world's leading integrated natural gas and electricity companies. The company, which owns approximately $30 billion in assets, produces electricity and natural gas, develops, constructs and operates energy and water facilities worldwide and delivers physical commodities and risk management and financial services to customers around the world. Enron's Internet address is www.enron.com, the stock is traded under the ticker symbol, "ENE."
Click here to download this press release in Microsoft Word format.
For additional information please contact:
Tracy Smith
(503) 464-7837
tracy_smith@enron.net
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