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.
