Cisco Continues Data Center Vision With New Switch, Updates

NX-OS, Gourlay said, is the heart of the Nexus 7000 series. NX-OS combines Cisco's SAN-OS, Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing protocols and advanced virtualization into one operation system with an interface similar to Cisco IOS.

Some key features of NX-OS include zero service-disruption upgrades, virtual device contexts, graceful systems operations and XML interfaces to access switching information or any command. If a failure is detected, NX-OS policies enable a stateful process restart without service disruption. The modular design provides fault containment and automatic recover so processes can be started, stopped and upgraded remotely.

That remote access gives resellers the tools to manage data centers remotely, Gourlay said, and helps them hit and maintain SLAs.

Along with the Nexus 7000 Series and NX-OS, Cisco also released the Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), a solution that gives visibility across data center networks. Built on Cisco's Fabric Manager for storage networks, DCNM offers topology discovery and virtualization for efficiency and systems awareness. Nexus 7000 management interfaces are compatible with Cisco VFrame Data Center, an orchestration platform that uses network intelligence to provision resources together as virtualized services. VFrame Data Center will be a key enabler for services orchestration on the Nexus platform.

The Nexus 7000 Series is also Cisco's first platform to deliver <"a href= http://www.crn.com/security/204701342">Cisco Trusted Security (TrustSec), an architecture announced last month that ties together identity- and role-based security across data centers to enforce trusted traffic segmentation without the need for complex address models and unmanageable access control lists. TrustSec enables virtual machine mobility throughout the data center for data integrity with a wire-rate AES-128 encryption implementation on every port of the Nexus 7000.

According to Cisco, the Nexus 7000 series starts at $75,000 and is available for order now. It is expected to be generally available in the second quarter of 2008. Cisco is also offering lease rates as low as 3.99 APR for the Nexus 7000 through Cisco Capital.

Cisco on Monday also announced updates to its Catalyst switching line, releasing a data-center optimized 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Module that provides up to 130 ports of 10 GigE per Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switch and 260 ports per Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System. The module, Cisco said, reduces power consumption by up to 50 percent per port. Cisco also introduced the Catalyst 6509 Enhanced Vertical Chassis (V-E) with nine vertical slots with front-to-back airflow. As part of the Catalyst 6500-E Series Switches, the Catalyst 6509 V-E can support up to 80 Gbps per slot. IT also supports Cisco's Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 720 and 32 families along with associated LAN, WAN and service modules.

Cisco also released a high-performance top-of-rack switch, the Catalyst 4900M Series for data center rack-server aggregation. The 4900M offers up to 40 10/100/1000 ports or 24 10 GigE ports to offer 320 Gbps and 250 million packets per second. The 4900M, Cisco said, will ease migration to 10 GigE.

Lastly, Cisco announced that the Catalyst Blade Switches will be available through Dell Computer to offer consistent security, high availability and quality of service with GigE performance from the server edge out to clients at the network edge. On the Catalyst Blade Switch, also announced the addition of Virtual Blade Technology (VBS) that can allow up to eight switches be managed with as one logical switch. VBS technology offers 160 Gbps upstream performance while doubling bandwidth to a server at the same time.

"With its Data Center 3.0 vision, Cisco is transforming the data center into a virtualized environment that revolutionizes how organizations adopt new IT strategies and quickly respond to changing business needs," said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of Cisco's Data Center, Switching and Services Group, in a statement. "The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is the result of significant and pioneering internal innovation. Combined with the 10 Gigabit Ethernet portfolio that the flagship Catalyst 6500 Series offers, Cisco provides customers with a smooth migration into a new era of data center networking."