Short for
Enterprise Systems Connection, or
Enterprise Systems Connectivity, an IBM
fiber optic connection technology that interconnects S/390
mainframe computers,
workstations and
network-attached storage devices across a single
channel and supports
half duplex data transfers. One of the key elements of ESCON is the
ESCON Director, an
I/O switch capable of providing dynamic, nonblocking, any-to-any connectivity for up to 60 fiber optic links operating at 200 Mb/s. The links can be up to 36 miles (60 kilometers) apart. ESCON is useful in
CANs and
MANs.
Compare with FICON.