'It's the network, stupid' Ascend acquirescompany's total management principle >BY SANDRA GUY, News Editor

A network management company with just 24 employees is filling a service void for powerhouse Ascend Communications. StonyBrook Services Inc., the Bohemia, N.Y.-based network management tool developer, was acquired recently by Ascend, the leading supplier of remote access servers to Internet service providers.

The result? The Holy Grail of network management, if Ken Packert, StonyBrook's co-founder, realizes his vision. StonyBrook, whose shareholders received 480,000 shares of Ascend common stock, is set to provide a total network solution for Ascend's product line. The two companies are working on a simple network management protocol-based product that will let customers manage their multivendor networks as a single entity.

StonyBrook's network-oriented management philosophy represents a paradigm shift from "box management," said Packert, whose enthusiasm reveals that he is a true believer. "It's really about the complex associations and connections the devices have with each other.

Adopting a catch phrase from President Clinton's 1992 election campaign, Packert summed up his principle: "It's not the device. It's the network, stupid. Who cares about the device? It could be a carrier pigeon. If that customer can't connect three times in a row, you've got to find that customer [in the network] and figure it out quickly," said Packert, now the director of product management for Alameda, Calif.-based Ascend.

Ascend will extend that expertise, which StonyBrook offered to large corporations, to its carrier and ISP customers. Of particular interest is StonyBrook's ability to manage dial-up ports over the public network, as well as dedicated lines-a rare combination, said Bernie Schneider, vice president of strategic business development for Ascend.

The tiny company also provides traditional fault isolation and troubleshooting, as well as network capacity planning, he said. Besides supporting real-time network management, StonyBrook's products store historical data and include trend analysis and reporting tools, enabling network managers to see where network capacity needs to be added or where it isn't being used.

"There are some real good network management companies out there," Schneider conceded. "But they only give a piece of the puzzle. They're not addressing the dial-up world.

ISPs have grown to more than 100,000 ports, he said. "Now we're looking at thousands of boxes and hundreds of thousands of ports. These networks are getting very large, and they are international in scope. With our GRF 400 IP switch, MAX family of [wide area network] access switches and Pipeline routers, we provide a level of performance and scalability that is unmatched."

Limited-time offer to high-speed Internet junkies: Bell Atlantic and BellSouth are teaming with Motorola to make ISDN equipment easier to afford. Motorola is offering rebates of up to $70 on its BitSURFR Pro ISDN terminal equipment, which the carriers are making available to customers.

Bell Atlantic, which touts itself as the leading provider of business and residential ISDN lines, provides outside installation for $125. ISDN is available to more than 90% of customers in the carrier's six-state and Washington, D.C., service area, a spokeswoman said. If a customer's local central office has no digital capabilities, he or she is connected to a digital office at no extra cost.

Last year, Bell Atlantic cut its ISDN rates across the board. The new residential rates in New Jersey, for example, are 14% to 79% cheaper than the previous ones.

After the Motorola rebate, customers who buy the equipment from Bell Atlantic Infospeed, the carrier's residential ISDN service center, will pay $254 for the BitSURFR Pro.

BellSouth offers free installation and claims a greater-than-95% rate of ISDN availability in its nine-state territory. Five of those states have threshold pricing, in which residential ISDN customers are charged a flat monthly rate for 200 hours' use, and businesses similarly get 320 hours, a spokeswoman said.-SG