Cisco Rolls Out Pair of Content Switches

With new offerings, Cisco extends both the low and high ends of its content switching lineup.

Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday introduced a pair of new content switches that extend the low and high ends of its content switching lineup. At the high end, Cisco added the new GSS 4480 Global Site Selector for customers looking to load balance across multiple data centers. The switch is a response to the increasing movement toward using multi-site, active data centers to insure business continuity and provide for better disaster recovery. The GSS 4480, which supports all Domain Name System (DNS)-compatible devices, is intended to optimize data center BIND/DNS processing by using intelligent load balancing algorithms and taking into account proximity to user request and server loads. The dedicated device, priced at $19,995, can handle over 4000 DNS resolutions per second.
At the low end of Ciscos content switching line, the San Jose, Calif., company also added the CSS 11501, a smaller form factor switch intended for smaller server sites, distributed data center architectures and for specialty server cages dedicated to specific applications within a large data center, according to Cisco spokesman Mark Leary in Boxboro, Mass. The one rack-unit form factor, fixed-configuration switch uses the same WebNS control software that runs in the Cisco CSS 11503 and CSS 11506 modular content switches. It provides eight Fast Ethernet and an optional Gigabit Ethernet port at a lower price tag—$10,995 for a single switch or $19,995 for a pair of switches. Cisco also announced that it has certified reference architectures for its content switches with both BEA Systems Inc. and Siebel Systems. The certified architectures are intended to simplify deployment of its switches with those vendors applications and help to optimize use of the vendors software and the systems on which they rely. Cisco also made its SCA 11000 Secure Sockets Layer acceleration appliance compliant with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) criteria for greater security during Web transactions.