11/14/2005 -- Cisco Systems Inc. is all but invincible in the enterprise, where -- most market watchers say -- it controls at least 70 percent of overall share.

But Cisco isn’t as dominant in the carrier space. It faces determined competition from archrival Juniper Networks, for starters, as well as a number of other vendors. Last week, Alcatel -- one of Cisco’s carrier space challengers -- made things even more interesting, announcing new features for its service-aware management portfolio designed to streamline operations and improve Ethernet usability for service providers and enterprise customers.

The new features are based on Alcatel’s 5620 Service Aware Manager and are enhanced by solutions from Syndesis, InfoVista and EMC Corp. They’re nothing less than pivotal for Alcatel, analysts say, because they effectively flesh out its managed carrier-grade stack. "[T]he move separates Alcatel from the point products since it can provide a manageable end-to-end solution based on its 7X50 series routers and offer a completely managed solution based on ... internal systems" like the 5620 SAM and 5750 SSC, says Glen Hunt, a senior analyst for carrier infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.

Moreover, says Hunt, Alcatel’s partners bring support for network visibility (via InfoVista), more advanced root cause and business impact analysis (EMC Smarts), and automated service provisioning and legacy service migration (Syndesis). Taken as a whole, Alcatel’s manageability infusion helps position it for greater penetration into Ethernet networks -- and offers a compelling vision for carriers. "Service providers can now deploy and manage services such as VPLS, which offers higher bandwidth than frame relay and multipoint delivery," he notes.

This doesn’t mean Alcatel’s competitors will be at a loss for words, of course. Cisco, for example, can fall back on its metro Ethernet strategy and NGN platforms. Cisco’s management solutions for metro Ethernet "are focused on managing Ethernet and associated metro Optical" technologies, Hunt explains. "Cisco’s NGN platforms, which also include the SIP-based Cisco Call Session Controller, provide an end-to-end solution for delivering video over an Ethernet and IP infrastructure." And Cisco isn’t without best-of-breed partners of its own, he concludes, citing the networking giant’s Netflow partners -- vendors such as Concord Communications (for performance and availability management), Narus (for Internet business infrastructure solutions), XACCT (for IP billing record creation and account provisioning), and Portal Software. -Stephen Swoyer