LAS VEGAS, Nev., Feb. 23, 2000 - Delivering on its commitment to drive the delivery of intelligent network services throughout the network, Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced new Wide Area Network (WAN) and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) capabilities for the Catalyst. 6000 family of high-performance multilayer switches with the introduction of the FlexWAN module. Cisco's latest offering enables enterprise customers to benefit from scalable bandwidth and intelligent services end-to-end with a smooth migration path toward optical networking.
"As companies adjust to the Internet-driven model of e-commerce, there has been a huge expansion of infrastructure requirements - both in the LAN and out to the WAN," said Dave Passmore, research director at The Burton Group. "Organizations that want to stay ahead of the curve will look for a clear migration path from existing networks to higher-speed, more intelligent solutions that can readily deploy new emerging applications at strategic locations across the entire network."
Cisco's new solution offers a wide range of WAN protocols and media options while delivering wire-speed intelligent network services. The FlexWAN module for the Catalyst 6000 family supports multiple Cisco 7200/7500 series WAN port adapters and offers scalability up to OC-3 speeds.
Catalyst 6000 Family Evolves the LAN/MAN/WAN Edge
Cisco's FlexWAN module represents a significant move in the Catalyst 6000 family evolution toward becoming one of the most scalable, intelligent and versatile networking platforms in the marketplace. The ability of the Catalyst 6000 family to scale up to OC-192 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet coupled with Cisco's proven experience with intelligent Internet-enabled offerings demonstrates the company's commitment to providing robust, flexible solutions for customers.
"Within our organization, we have always worked to maintain the highest performance levels possible while ensuring that we have a smooth migration path as our network demands grow," said Quan Nguyen, networking manager at McGill University. "The Catalyst 6000 family is a platform that can meet the onslaught of growing bandwidth requirements as it scales up from the LAN through the WAN while offering intelligent services to support next-generation applications."
Enabling High Speed Internet Applications Through Intelligent Bandwidth
As the enterprise stretches to accommodate emerging applications, the network infrastructure needs to deliver scalable bandwidth and intelligent services. Such services include Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), extensive security and Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities for Internet and intranet applications including e-commerce, e-learning, centralized or outsourced content and application hosting.
The Catalyst 6000 family meets these requirements with its hardware-based Access Control Lists (ACL) and robust filtering mechanisms that provide customers with the traffic security features to either deny traffic or tailor the network for individual users. The Catalyst 6000 family delivers content networking and full Cisco IOS. routing services.
Cisco's FlexWAN module performs Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) for congestion avoidance, class-based weighted fair queuing to prioritize traffic delivery and traffic shaping to manage transmission between LAN/WAN segments. These capabilities allow customers to control network traffic by interface, protocol, or application via tight linkage to policies defined by the network manager. By employing these policies and combining them with high performance routing and switching, advanced applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), voice and video can be prioritized and protected end-to-end.
The Catalyst FlexWAN module delivers intelligent network services over a variety of wide area networks including those based on Frame Relay, ATM, HDLC, PPP and Packet over SONET.
Flexible Migration Options and Investment Protection
Whether designing a new network from the ground up or migrating from an existing one, Cisco provides a number of options that enable customers to take advantage of New World Internet technology that will protect and maximize returns on investments.
The Catalyst 6000 family delivers a smooth migration path to high speed optical networking. The product family complements Cisco's 7200/7500 series routers, which provide enterprises with the highest density WAN solution on the market, while incorporating advanced network capabilities such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) security, data center integration and voice. With the Catalyst 6000 FlexWAN module and the Cisco 7200/7500 series, Cisco now provides customers with the solution and design flexibility to match their individual network requirements with specific services, throughput and density capabilities.
Pricing, Availability and Further Information
The FlexWAN module is available now with a list price of $21,995. Further information on the Catalyst 6000 family.
