SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - September 26, 2007) - Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today marks the next
evolution of its Empowered Branch framework with the introduction of new
products and service innovations designed to enable greater business
productivity and operational efficiency in enterprise branch offices.
Collectively, the new products and services allow customers to standardize
their branch architecture on a consistent set of security, unified
communications, application acceleration and wireless services while
optimizing branch performance and cost. Designed to facilitate
interoperability, these additions enhance the overall branch experience to
help lower the barriers to entry for wide service adoption in the branch
and reduce the total cost of operations. These new innovations enhance
Cisco's successful branch offerings as demonstrated by the Cisco Integrated
Services Router and Cisco Catalyst® 2960 Series Switches reaching
worldwide sales milestones of 3 million and 1 million, respectively.
Today's new Cisco Empowered Branch offerings include:
-- Cisco 1861 Integrated Services Router (ISR). Offers a compact all-in-one
unified communications solution and highly secure routing platform enabling
anytime, anywhere access to business-critical information resulting in more
effective communications and collaboration.
-- Cisco Catalyst® 2960 Series Switches with LAN Lite Cisco IOS®
Software. Reduces the network total cost of ownership by simplifying the
migration from non-intelligent hubs and unmanaged switches to fully
scalable managed switches with entry-level security, quality of service
(QoS) and availability.
-- Cisco Intrusion Prevention System Advanced Integration Module (IPS AIM).
Scales security performance and threat-prevention, helping branch offices
defend critical business processes against attack and disruption while
protecting privacy and supporting policy and regulatory compliance.
-- Cisco IOS Performance Routing (PfR) and High-End Cisco Wide Area
Application Services (WAAS) Network Module. Accelerates business-critical
applications and minimizes WAN bandwidth expenses with application-aware
routing and WAN traffic optimization.
-- Wireless LAN Controller support for IEEE 802.11n. Ensures smooth
migration path to new wireless technologies and services, while preserving
existing investment.
-- Cisco Unified Messaging Gateway. Cost-effectively scales Cisco Unity
Express, Cisco Unity and legacy voice messaging services to very large
organizations.
"With the emergence of new business applications and a more collaborative
global business environment, our customers are putting a greater emphasis
on their remote offices," said Marie Hattar, senior director of network
systems at Cisco. "Cisco Empowered Branch allows them to take advantage of
new business opportunities by providing them with a network platform that
addresses all their application and service needs today, yet continuously
evolves to provide service innovations required for the future."
Enhancing Communications Capabilities to Enrich Business Productivity and
Collaboration
The Cisco 1861 Integrated Services Router is a simple, easy-to-manage
platform specifically developed for small enterprise branch offices. It
combines Unified Communications and a highly secure router solution for up
to eight users. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.2 and Cisco
Unity Express 2.3 and Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) 4.2 are
options for the Cisco 1861 ISR helping streamline operations and lower
total operating costs.
The Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches with LAN Lite Cisco IOS Software
combines scalable and simplified management with entry-level security, QoS
and availability features. These allow for reliable Fast Ethernet
connectivity for small wiring-closet and branch office networks. The new
Cisco Catalyst 2960 LAN Lite switches lower the network total cost of
ownership by simplifying network configuration, monitoring, and
troubleshooting through capabilities and tools such as time domain
reflectometry, Cisco Network Assistant, and CiscoWorks LAN Management
Solution while enabling an easy migration path to full Cisco IOS
capabilities, as needed.
Integrating Advanced Security into the Cisco ISR
With the ever-increasing complexity and sophistication of security threats,
every point in the network can be at risk. The Cisco Intrusion Prevention
System Advanced Integration Module (IPS AIM) for the Cisco modular ISR is
designed to identify, classify and help stop malicious traffic to protect
remote branch networks from threats originating from the Internet and to
reduce wide-area network (WAN) link overload from infected hosts at the
branch. Also recently announced was the Network Admission Control (NAC)
network module for Cisco 2800 and 3800 ISRs which allows smaller branches
to enforce security policies. Together, these advanced security modules
help growing businesses future-proof their networks.
Accelerating Applications and Minimizing WAN Bandwidth Expenses with
Application Intelligence
Businesses that use multiple WAN connections face complex implementation
challenges when trying to optimize traffic across multiple WAN links, while
maintaining maximum network availability and application performance. The
new Cisco Performance Routing (PfR) software allows organizations to
intelligently optimize network routes by monitoring the Internet traffic,
performance bottlenecks and overall conditions and match them to
application needs. The new high-end Cisco Wide Area Application Services
(WAAS) Network Module (NME-WAE 522) for the Cisco 3800 Series Integrated
Services Router enables customers to consolidate costly branch servers and
storage into data centers, and deploy new applications centrally while
still offering LAN-like performance for remote users. Used together, these
two new solutions take applications and network optimization to a new
level.
TELUS Communications, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, is a Canadian
telecommunications leader with a strategic focus on delivery of converged
data, IP networking, voice and wireless services to customers across the
country. The company continues to invest heavily in technology to enhance
services for its customers to drive business growth and maintain a
competitive edge.
"TELUS is encouraged by the potential that the Cisco Integrated Services
Router offers for delivery of multiple converged services on a single
device. For the managed services provider, there is great potential for
simplified network management and ultimately better cost effectiveness,"
said David Fuller, TELUS senior vice-president, solutions and products.
"The Cisco ISR enables an integrated approach that helps us deliver
operational efficiencies and also serves as a platform for us to add new
services rapidly as the needs of our business customers evolve."
Unified Communications Enhancements for the Branch Office
The Cisco Unified Messaging Gateway provides intelligent routing for
voicemail messages and exchanging subscriber and directory information
among up to 10,000 voice mail systems. Cisco Unity Express 3.0 simplifies
the management of enterprise-wide voice messaging systems, provides new
security mechanisms, offers advanced messaging features such as call
recording and extends Interactive Voice Response (IVR) self-service
capabilities for improved customer service at the branch. The Cisco E-911
capability with Survivable Remote Site Telephony 4.2 enhances safety and
security of branch employees by enabling faster emergency response. Cisco
Unified Communications Manager Express 4.2 further enhances branch services
with extensive new voice security features, extension mobility within the
branch and the addition of call center capabilities through
interoperability with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 5.0.
Next-Generation Wireless Access for Branches with IEEE 802.11n
The IEEE 802.11n draft 2.0 standard has the potential to offer five times
the performance of current wireless networks. Cisco is delivering
next-generation, high-performance wireless to the empowered branch through
an IEEE 802.11n software upgrade for the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller
Module (WLCM) for the 2800 and Cisco 3800 Series ISR, which supports the
Cisco Aironet® 1250 Series Access Points.
Pricing and Expected Availability
The Cisco 1861 ISR is available now starting at a U.S. list price of
$3,995. The Cisco Catalyst 2960 LAN Lite Series Switches are available now
starting at a U.S. list price of $995. The Cisco Unified Messaging Gateway
is scheduled to be available in November 2007, starting at a U.S. list
price of $9,000 for 250 nodes. The Cisco IPS AIM is scheduled to be
available in November 2007, starting at a U.S. list price of $3,000. The
Cisco PfR software is available now; service provider services or higher
IOS feature set is needed. The Cisco Wide Area Application Services Network
Module NME 522 is available now, starting at an introductory promotional
U.S. list price of $6,950.
For more information on the Cisco Empowered Branch, visit
www.cisco.com/go/EmpoweredBranch
About Cisco Systems
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms
how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco
can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to
http://newsroom.cisco.com.
Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Systems, Aironet, Catalyst and IOS are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its
affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other
trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective
owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership
relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco
Public Information.
For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit "News@Cisco" at the
following link:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html
Contact Information: Press Relations:
Ray Hadulco
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 853-6054
rayh@cisco.com
Analyst Relations:
Rebecca Noriega
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 853-5819
rnoriega@cisco.com
Investor Relations:
Marisa Ross
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 527-9830
mariross@cisco.com