SAN JOSE, Calif. - January 18, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today introduced the Catalyst. mid-market LAN (local area network) switching solution, a comprehensive range of high-performance LAN switching and routing offerings targeted at high-growth, mid-sized networks and enterprise branch offices with 250 to 1000 employees. The new solution meets today's network needs and scales to meet future requirements of Internet business applications, and data, voice and video integration.
The Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution consists of desktop and routing switches that provide IT professionals with the highest levels of network availability and performance, security, quality of service (QoS) and easy integration with their existing networking infrastructures. The solution offers many of the same intelligent network services available in enterprise-class products, while providing the affordability, simplicity of management and ease of integration required by mid-sized businesses.
Internet-Enabled Businesses
Many of today's mid-market businesses are experiencing high growth in employees and new office sites, as well as change in the number and types of applications running on their networks. Many of these businesses require that their networks scale from providing basic connectivity to supporting strategic Internet business applications, such as supply chain management, business-to-business e-commerce and customer relationship management, as well as accommodating additional voice and video traffic.
These mid-sized networks must retain the simplicity, price/performance and ease of integration of their current networks while providing enterprise-class capabilities to support the demands of these new Internet business applications. Now, with the new Cisco Catalyst mid- market LAN switching solution, customers can build robust LANs with desktop and routing switches to provide a full range of intelligent network services.
"After deploying the Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution, we have seen significant improvements in network capacity and performance," said Clayton Lambert, network engineer at Exodus Communications. "We have found that, for our DataVault service, Cisco's new Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution offers high performance, great scalability, simple management and high availability. These capabilities are helping Exodus accommodate the ever-increasing demand for the application services and network growth of our customers."
"Many dynamic, high-growth businesses are realizing the strategic importance of their networks and upgrading their LAN infrastructure to accommodate emerging Internet business applications and additional voice and video traffic," said Bill Rossi, senior director of marketing for the Desktop Switching Business Unit at Cisco Systems. "The Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution meets the needs of mid-sized networks by providing the right combination of building blocks for designing intelligent networks simply and cost effectively."
Ideal Mid-Sized LAN Switching and Routing Solution
The Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution consists of desktop switches that offer robust wiring closet connectivity: the Catalyst 3500 series XL, including the newly introduced Catalyst 3548 XL, and the Catalyst 2900 series XL. The solution also includes two new routing switches to provide intelligent services in the network core: the Catalyst 2948G-L3 and Catalyst 4908G-L3.
Reference Network Designs
The Cisco solution comprises two reference network designs to meet the requirements of mid-sized networks. The primary reference network design combines the new Catalyst 3548 XL and the extended Catalyst 3500 XL series family with the new Catalyst 4908G-L3 routing switch, and provides customers with high-performance Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.
For mid-sized networks that want the most cost-effective, entry-level 10/100 solution, a second network reference design combines the new Catalyst 2948G-L3 10/100 routing switch with the Catalyst 2900 XL series of desktop switches.
Solution Components
The Catalyst 3548 series XL switch is the latest addition to the Catalyst 3500 series XL stackable 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet switches and consists of a single rack unit (RU) stackable switch with 48 10BaseT/100BaseTX ports and two Gigabit Interface Connector (GBIC)-based Gigabit Ethernet ports that accommodate a range of industry-standard GBICs, including the Cisco GigaStack. GBIC, and 1000BaseSX and 1000BaseLX/LH GBICs.
The Catalyst 3548 XL uses Cisco Switch Clustering technology and extends single IP address management to more than 750 ports, simplifying network management and deployment of these switches in the network. The entire line of Catalyst 3500 series XL switches provides a flexible wiring closet solution for mid-sized networks.
As a new member of the industry-leading Catalyst 4000 series, the Catalyst 4908G-L3 routing switch has eight GBIC Gigabit Ethernet ports and delivers wire-speed gigabit routing performance at an affordable price. As a high-performance mid-market network backbone switch, the Catalyst 4908G serves mid-sized networks as an aggregation point for Catalyst 3500s deployed in wiring closets, providing high performance and availability, security and end-to-end QoS.
The Catalyst 2948G-L3 is a new fixed configuration 10/100 routing switch with 48 RJ-45 10/100 ports and two Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports with modular GBIC interfaces. The 1.5 RU switch is ideal for backbone deployment in mid-sized networks that require wire-speed routing performance, and for aggregating multiprotocol traffic from multiple wiring closets or desktop switches such as the Catalyst 2900XL.
The Catalyst 2900 series XL switches are the top-selling Cisco line of 10/100 autosensing desktop switches, offering high performance, versatile modularity and easy-to-use management. The Catalyst 2900 series XL includes five models with different port densities, configuration options and pricing to meet a broad range of network design requirements.
For more information on the Catalyst mid-market LAN switching solution, please visit the Virtual Press Kit.
