Cisco Customers Harness the Power of the Network to Enhance Mobility and Collaboration While Cutting Energy and Business Costs

Range of New Features Added to Cisco Catalyst Switch and Integrated Services Router Lineups


SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - May 27, 2009) - Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today showcased new examples of customers using the network in innovative ways to boost mobility and collaboration, cut costs, and improve environmental sustainability. Cisco also announced new additions to its Catalyst® Switch and Integrated Services Router (ISR) portfolios that continue to increase the business value of the network, helping companies achieve even greater energy and IT efficiencies, while extending collaboration capabilities of the mobile workforce.

Customer Highlights:

  • The Council Rock School District (CRSD), located north of Philadelphia, serves approximately 12,400 students with 1,400 full-time staff. A winner of the Energy Star Award, CRSD has installed a network based on the Cisco Catalyst platform that provides Web access for maintenance staff to monitor and control heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in each building and across campuses. Building staff can adjust energy usage to actual need, dramatically reducing the district's energy costs. Since December 2005, the district has reduced energy consumption by 42.7 percent and achieved a savings of $5.3 million. The school district is now deploying Cisco EnergyWise, Cisco's new business energy-management solution integrated with Cisco Catalyst switches. The aim is to expand energy management to laptops, desktop computers, and Cisco wireless access points for an additional savings of $85,000 per year.


  • The Cardiovascular Group is one of the leading cardiology practices in northern Virginia, providing a full range of comprehensive cardiovascular services. With eight branch offices, the Cardiovascular Group has installed a network of Cisco 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers with integrated voice and wireless services. The latest Cisco ISR service to be deployed is an integrated Internet Protocol (IP) fax service that reduces costs and simplifies the process of faxing documents. The fax service has been deployed on an ISR Cisco Application Extension Platform (AXP) module that hosts Linux applications directly from the router, using the network as an application host and eliminating the need for a server in each branch office.

Providing additional benefits to customers, Cisco is delivering a wide set of new additions for its family of Cisco Integrated Services Routers and Catalyst switches. Although each update tackles a specific service or aspect of routing and switching, collectively they are designed to work together to enable customers to improve collaboration, productivity, and innovation across their businesses. The latest updates include:

Cisco Integrated Services Router Updates for Mobility, Collaboration and Sustainability

  • Cisco 880 VDSL2 and 890 Series Integrated Services Routers: New small business routers offer faster broadband options (VDSL2) and enhanced performance with integrated security and wireless connectivity.
  • Cisco 1861W Integrated Services Router: Aimed at small businesses, this voice router offers 802.11g wireless support to tighten the synergy between wired and wireless networks and increase throughput across both segments for greater mobility.
  • Cisco 3G Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) for the ISR: Now supporting HSPA, Cisco 3G WWAN offers increased bandwidth and improved performance and management for network outage or disaster recovery for primary and backup applications.
  • Singlewire Software offers Cisco Application Extension Platform solution: Singlewire Software is the most recent application developer partner to deliver a solution on the Cisco Application Extension Platform for the ISR. Singlewire's InformaCast solution simultaneously sends an audio stream and/or text message to multiple IP phones, Atlas IP Speakers, the Desktop Notification System, and overhead paging systems.
  • Cisco Unified Communications enhancements for mobility and collaboration: Cisco Unified SIP Proxy to reduce unified communications deployment costs; new voice signatures on the IP Security Network Module to make voice more secure; new mobility and video features on Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express; and new time card management capabilities on Cisco Unity Express to make branch employees just as productive and collaborative as those at headquarters.
  • Support for Cisco EnergyWise on the ISR for greater energy savings: Cisco's price-reduced EtherSwitch modules now support the Cisco EnergyWise capability to help improve energy utilization in the local-area network.

Cisco Catalyst Switch Improvements for Greater Performance, Collaboration, Mobility and Sustainability

  • Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor 6L-E and Line Card: The Supervisor 6L-E provides customers with a high-performance, price-optimized, entry-level supervisor enabling rich-media collaboration, and increased energy and operational efficiency in the wiring closet. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 is the first modular switch in the industry to be power-over-Ethernet plus (PoEP) ready, and supports up to 30 watts. Its new 48-port 10/100/1000 line card enables 30-watt PoE support for next-generation high-power devices like videophones, dual-band wireless access points, building service devices and video surveillance cameras.
  • Smart Call Home and EnergyWise for the Catalyst 4500 Series: Cisco has extended its location services Smart Call Home and EnergyWise to its Catalyst 4500 Series. Smart Call Home lowers operational costs and reduces downtime by allowing devices to detect many problems and notify Cisco support teams for resolution before network managers notice them. EnergyWise is the industry's first energy-management architecture to reduce energy costs and other inefficiencies.
  • Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series innovations: Updates to the Catalyst 6500 Series increase flexibility and functionality in campus backbone deployments. Cisco Catalyst 6500 virtual switching system (VSS) and service module integration allow customers to deploy firewall, network analysis module (NAM), and wireless service modules in their VSS campus core, providing the highest scalability and reliability for backbone services. New NAM capabilities enhance application performance by providing critical visibility into voice applications, traffic analysis, and segmented Multiprotocol Label Switching networks.

Supporting Quotes:

  • "Cisco's core business in routing and switching serves as the platform of our customers' IT infrastructures," said Marie Hattar, Cisco's vice president of network systems and security. "As our customers become more mobile, collaborative, and sophisticated in the way they do business, the role of Cisco's networking solutions increase, and is allowing our customers to catch market transitions, drive operational efficiency, and achieve greater energy savings."


  • "The Council Rock School District is dedicated to its Go Green program, and integrating Cisco EnergyWise into our Cisco network enables our IT department to provide responsible, business value and dramatic cost savings to our organization," said Matt Frederickson, director of information technology, Council Rock School District. "Having already invested in the Catalyst 4500 platform, we are excited about the 4500 enhancements such as PoE and in-service software upgrades, which can also have a positive impact on the bottom line."


  • "The Cisco ISR deployment provides a solid foundation for a full breadth of integrated services to our doctors, nurses and patients in the fight against heart disease," said Daryl Schweiger, manager of information systems, The Cardiovascular Group. "The combined Cisco AXP and XmediusFAX solution allows us to take advantage of IP telephony to enhance productivity and collaboration, while reducing operational costs in an easily managed solution."


  • "Cisco AXP provides an important platform to deliver emergency broadcast and mass notification capabilities with the Singlewire InformaCast application," said Ken Bywaters, executive vice president of product management with Singlewire Software. "Providing these critical capabilities as a core network service within the branch office, rather than relying on a separate server, allows us to easily deploy the application in a compact, easy-to-manage form factor that is well integrated into the customer's enterprise network. The emergency and mass notification services offered by our application are enabled by Cisco's robust multiservice routing platform."

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Cisco ISR 890 Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor 6L-E and Line Card