Cisco Enhances DC Networking Portfolio

Cisco has introduced additions to its datacentre networking portfolio that address these needs and deliver architectural flexibility and scale for physical, virtual or cloud computing environments.

The new Cisco switching products augment the Cisco Unified Fabric portfolio, which consists of Nexus datacentre switches and MDS storage switches that connect servers, data storage, and corporate networks seamlessly within the datacentre and cloud. Cisco unveiled second generation capabilities for the Nexus 7000 family and Cisco FabricPath support for the Nexus 5500 switch; together they provide industry-leading datacentre fabric scalability, supporting over 12,000 10GbE server ports.

Cisco also added new switches with sub-microsecond latency to the Nexus 3000 ultra-low latency switching family, and introduced a virtualised version of its popular ASA security appliance to deliver consistent security for virtualised and cloud environments.

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The new Fabric 2 module and new high density L2/L3 10GbE F2 Series line card for the Nexus 7000 Series offer high performance (768 Line Rate L2/L3 10GbE ports in a single Nexus 7000 Series chassis) and reduced power per port (less than 10W per 10GbE port.) Combined with integrated FabricPath and Fabric Extender (FEX) support, the Cisco fabric architecture delivers unparalleled scale and operational simplicity.

The Nexus 5500 provides industry-leading 10GbE density in a top-of-rack form factor, and will support FabricPath, a NX-OS innovation. FabricPath provides systems-level scalability and addresses emerging datacentre and cloud computing challenges posed by sophisticated virtualisation requirements, dynamic workload mobility needs, and clustered application environments found in high-performance computing. FabricPath brings the stability and scalability of routing to Layer 2 networks, with datacentre-wide scalability, resilience and performance.

With the addition of adapter FEX and VM-FEX capabilities (based on the emerging standard IEEE 802.1BR), the Nexus 5500 Series can now support thousands of virtual machines with a single point of management, providing consistency across physical and virtual domains. This extends the simplified management and scalability benefits of Nexus 2000 Fabric Extender technology to network interface cards (NIC) and virtual machines.

Together, second generation Nexus 7000 and Nexus 5500 deliver the industry’s leading datacentre fabric scalability, supporting fabrics to over 12,000 10GbE server ports: double the next-best offering on the market at less than half the cost. Cisco customers can now build the industry’s most scalable, simple and cost effective 1/10GbE datacentre fabrics.

Designed to meet the needs of the most mission critical datacentre environments and campus core deployments, the Nexus 7009, featuring a compact form factor (14RU) and high availability and virtualisation support. The Nexus 7009 provides investment protection through support for all currently shipping Nexus 7000 I/O modules, supervisor and power supplies with the same industry-leading NX-OS, Cisco’s datacentre operating system.

Designed for High Frequency Trading, High Performance Computing , ‘Big Data’, and Web 2.0 deployments, two new Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches deliver industry-leading sub- microsecond low latency, and high density 40 Gigabit Ethernet (16 port 10G/40G) and copper (48 port 100Mb/1GbE) options for L2/L3 deployments.

Cisco also expanded its security portfolio to add a virtual firewall for secure multi-tenant and cloud environments. The Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) – the industry’s most deployed firewall with more than one million installed appliances– will be available in a virtual form factor: the new Cisco ASA 1000V cloud firewall, which integrates with the Nexus 1000V software switch. Complementing Cisco’s Virtual Security Gateway (VSG), the ASA 1000V extends firewall capabilities to provide consistent security for physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures.

“Aimed at helping our customers to achieve their business goals faster and with less risk, Cisco’s pace of datacentre innovation is unrivaled, and with over 19,000 NX-OS customers, it’s clear that the market has embraced Cisco’s fabric approach as the foundation for their datacentre architecture. Cisco is leading the industry transition to 10Gb Ethernet delivering the highest scale in the market today. Cisco provides extremely flexible solutions that support diverse datacentre environments, from small scale or general purpose enterprise applications to the special requirements of Web 2.0, high performance computing, Big Data and cloud computing,” said John McCool, senior vice president and General Manager, Core Technology Group, Cisco.