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Message Posted: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 @ 13:45:00 GMT

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Currently our 4 Node Worldmark system is located at the same site as our primary mainframe source. A new building is being constructed about 3,500 feet away, and consideration is being made to move the Teradata system to that location. I have done some elimentary reading on ESCON, and it appears that the channel connection can cover that distance, but the network and system architechture teams are questioning the need for that type of connectivity and are proposing dedicated ghz ethernet. I would appreciate some input on this proposal and my basic questions below based on general reading:

We have ESCON connected to 2 of our 4 nodes, so would this involve 1, 2 or 4 seperate ESCON cables for odd/even connectivity?

From looking at ESCON web sites, it appears that ESCON can traverse a distance of about 20 miles, would there be additional bridge devices needed for the 3,500 ft distance?

ESCON is a somewhat direct connect and ethernet would involve gateways, firewalls, and other nodes. Published ESCON speed is about 200mbps, we ave 4 ESCON ports getting about 11mps. Would ghz ethernet be 90x faster or am I mixing apples and oranges?

What effect would a change to ethernet have on the use of Teradata mainframe utilities (ie TDP, Fastload, CLI)?

ESCON has dedicated PE's, but unless we approach the 1200 sessions per node/gateway limit is this a problem? 80+% of the data loaded comes from mainframe sources.

How does the actual fibre cable differ between ESCON and ethernet? Would there be significant or marginal difference in pulling the cable between sites for either?

Moving outside the same site increases security risks, can encryption be employed on ESCON?

What resources has other organizations used to connect Teradata to mainframe in a WAN environment?

Currently, my gut feeling is that it would be a better idea to leave Teradata near the mainframe source, but that space is leased and the new site is "free", so it will involve some cost/benefit justification.

Thank You for your input.

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