Cisco Systems is rolling out new fixed Ethernet access switches and
improvements to its routers as part of the company’s larger Borderless
Network strategy.
Cisco on March 17 introduced the Catalyst 3750-X and
3560-X fixed-switching portfolio, and the Catalyst 2960-S switch. In
addition, the company is unveiling new network services focusing on
security and energy efficiency, and two new routers.
The move will bring greater security, energy efficiency and video capabilities to Cisco’s networking products, and expand the Borderless Network initiative that the company unveiled in October 2009.
The strategy essentially calls for creating a network
infrastructure that enables users to access the networks from anywhere
with any device at any time, according to Robert Soderbery, senior vice
president and general manager of Cisco’s Ethernet Switching Technology
Group.
“It’s moving from a device-centric view of the world
to a user-centric view of the world,” Soderbery said in an interview in
Cisco’s Boston offices.
The network is the key to that, he said. The key will
be to take the jobs that normally have been on separate appliances—from
wireless to security to video traffic—and put them directly into the
network through the routers and switches, Soderbery said.
The latest news from Cisco illustrates the movement in that direction.
The company’s Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X fixed
switches offer 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities and full PoE (power
over Ethernet) on all ports. The switches feature StackWise for high
availability and, now, StackPower, which brings power resiliency to a
stack of 3750-X switches. Through StackPower, power can be shared by a
stack of four of the switches, so operations continue if particular
power supplies fail.
“It optimizes the power supply for the stack rather than for [individual] boxes,” Soderbery said.
The Catalyst 2960-S Series Switch offers many of the
same features—including EnergyWise and FlexStack—for customers that
want the high-performance but not all the services that the larger
switches offer.
Included in the network services announcements was
the enhancement of Cisco’s EnergyWise offering, which enables users to
more easily control the power consumption of their PoE (power over
Ethernet) devices. Cisco is extending that power management capability
to PCs and laptops, and also unveiled the EnergyWise SDK (software
development kit), which will enable third parties to put EnergyWise
support into their own products.
In addition, Cisco unveiled its TrustSec security
solution, which enables businesses to put security policies in place
for all of their access technologies, including wired, wireless and
VPNs (virtual private networks). The service protects transactions on
the network, enables for user authentication and ensures network access
based on that identity.
Cisco is putting TrustSec into its Catalyst 3650 and
3750 product portfolio, and announced that the new 3750-X and 3560-X
also offer advanced encryption between the switch and client thanks to
the implementation of the 802.1a/e standard.
In addition, Cisco’s new Medianet offerings are aimed at improving video traffic over the network.
Cisco also tripled the performance of its ISR
(Integrated Services Router) G2, which was first introduced in October
2009 to handle such jobs as rich-media applications, virtualization,
energy efficiency and security. The ISR G2’s capabilities also now can
be extended to remote businesses.
In addition, the company improved the security,
unified communications and management capabilities of its ASR
(Aggregation Services Router) 1000 Series by enabling it to deliver its
services over the WAN.
Cisco’s latest Borderless Network announcements come a week after the company rolled out its massive CRS-3 router,
a high-capacity router that promises a capacity of as much as 322T bps
and is aimed at handling the rapidly growing demand for network
bandwidth, which is being driven by video traffic, according to Cisco
officials.
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