SAN JOSE, Calif.-Dec. 13, 1999-Extending its leadership in the growing virtual private network (VPN) market, Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced enhanced VPN products and technologies for high bandwidth access, including emerging cable and broadband telecommuter solutions and support for Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). Available today, these secure end-to-end solutions provide customers with the scalability necessary for enterprise-wide high bandwidth VPN deployments.

"Emerging broadband access solutions are rapidly driving VPN deployments, as together the two technologies provide enterprises with the best of both worlds-the high speed of cable and DSL connections and the cost savings afforded by access VPNs," said Richard Palmer, vice president of Cisco's Enterprise Wide Area Network (WAN) business unit. "Due to the breadth of our VPN product portfolio, we are uniquely positioned to provide customers with end-to-end broadband access VPN solutions for connecting to the corporate network."

VPN-Optimized Broadband Access Platforms for High Speed, Cost Effective Connectivity

Providing cost-effective and secure VPN connectivity for small branch offices and telecommuters, Cisco now features IPSec and Cisco Secure Integrated Software, formerly known as the Cisco IOS. Firewall feature set, with firewall, intrusion detection and digital certificate support on a comprehensive suite of VPN-optimized platforms. Covering today's predominant high-bandwidth technologies, including digital subscriber line (DSL), cable and integrated services digital network (ISDN), these platforms include the Cisco 1400 series DSL router, the Cisco uBR924 cable access router and the Cisco 800 series ISDN router.

"Using Cisco VPN solutions, we are able to connect user sites across the United States and in the United Kingdom to our central resources in San Jose, California via multiple access technologies, including ISDN, DSL, cable modem and conventional dial," said David Swan, manager of Network Operations at Altera Corporation. "We're now extending our VPN network with Cisco 7100 and 800 series routers because of their additional security and easier management features. The breadth of Cisco's VPN solutions gives us the flexibility to choose the best remote site solution on a case-by-case basis."

Flexible and Scalable Central Site VPN Solutions

At the central site, enterprises require scalable, flexible and secure VPN platforms for terminating thousands of tunnels. Meeting this need, Cisco's VPN solutions now give users the flexibility to implement the remote access model best suited for individual requirements through support of PPTP clients and Microsoft point-to-point encryption (MPPE) by the Cisco 7100 and 7200 series platforms. This enables remote access VPN deployment using client software resident in Microsoft Windows 95, 98 and NT operating systems.

"Cisco and Microsoft have worked closely together to advance interoperability between Cisco's VPN product portfolio and the VPN features included with Windows," said John Frederiksen, Windows 2000 group product manager at Microsoft. "As a result, we have broadened both of our customers' options for deploying flexible, secure, state-of-the-art VPNs."

Further extending central site VPN deployment options, Cisco is introducing two new models within its Cisco 7100 series of Integrated VPN routers-the Cisco 7140-8T and 7140-2FE. The Cisco 7140-8T features an integrated eight T1/E1 WAN interface, which provides an nx T1/E1 solution for central sites requiring the redundancy of dual AC power and the fast VPN performance of the Cisco 7140. The 7140-2FE is a dual Fast Ethernet head-end VPN solution specifically designed for VPN tunnel termination behind the WAN edge, enabling enterprises to deploy VPNs without replacing or adapting their existing WAN edge device.

Proactive Security Scanning

In addition to its existing support of Windows NT, the enterprise-class Cisco Secure Scanner, formerly known as NetSonar, now extends affordable proactive security capabilities to Unix-based network environments through full-feature Solaris operating environment support. The Cisco Secure Scanner is an enterprise-class software tool that offers robust network system identification, innovative data management, flexible user-defined vulnerability rules and comprehensive security reporting capabilities.

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is theworldwide leader in networking for the Internet.

Contact for this press release:
Terry Anderson
Cisco Systems, Inc.
(408) 525-7188
terrande@cisco.com

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