Cisco Opens ISR To Application Developers

"They can go have a new conversation with a customer," he said.

Cisco partners agreed.

"It will provide a lot of opportunities," said Paul Cronin, senior vice president of Atrion Networking, a Warwick, R.I.-based solution provider. ""I have a compelling reason to go back and engage with customers."

Cronin added that it also gives Cisco partners the ability to team up with other partners to offer a more robust solution.

"It's a great opportunity for me to tap a partner, go in with a collaborative approach and come up with a business solution," he said.

Additionally, Cronin said, opening the ISR to third-party application development can enable VARs to start developing their own applications to sell to customers along with the ISR platform. Because applications are repeatable, they offer a new way for VARs to profit, he said.

"They turned a router into a little server," Cronin said. "It gives me a change at looking into doing my own application development."

According to Cisco, the Application eXtension Platform is shipping now. The Advanced Integration Module (AIM-102) has a list price of $1,795. The EtherSwitch Network Module (NME-302) lists for $3,500 and the EtherSwitch Networking Module (NME-522) lists for $5,000.

Along with opening up the ISR platform to third-party developers, Cisco also released the WAAS WAE-674 Wide Area Application Engine for acceleration of centralized data center applications and local application hosting. The WAE-674 offers WAN optimization services and can be upgraded with embedded virtualization software to support virtual blades for hosting Microsoft Windows Server 2008 along with future off-the-shelf applications. Essentially, users can centralize from the branch into the data center and still offer strong application performance across the WAN and retaining the Windows platform in the branch.

Cisco announced the integration of Windows Server 2008 and Cisco WAAS technology in February, and the Cisco WAAS WAE-674 is the first Cisco WAN optimization platform to enable the capability. The appliance lists for $16,000.

Cisco on Thursday also unveiled two new series of ISRs for the branch integrating 802.11n, the latest wireless LAN standard. The 880 and 860 Series are fixed-configuration routers and integrated lightweight access points that support Cisco Unified Wireless and 802.11n wireless LAN technology.

Select models of the 880 series will feature an integrated 3G wireless WAN interface. Other modules will provide specialized support for managed services, including managed voice and SIP trunking support. The 880 and 860 Series ISRs will be available in June. The Cisco 861 Series lists for $449 and $649 with fast Ethernet. The Cisco 888 will list for $1,295.

Lastly, Cisco introduced enhancements to its Unified Boarder Element, a set of Cisco ISO software features that provide Session Boarder Control in the ISR with support of SIP profiles, SIP video and interconnect enhancements for device interoperability and management of unified communications deployments. Cisco also launched its Configuration Professional Management Software, a tool that enables the integrated management of voice, security and data services on Cisco routers.