Cisco Delivers Second-Generation ISR to Boost Network Bandwidth

Cisco Systems is introducing a new generation of network routers that it hopes will help it remain relevant as customers increasingly outsource their IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud.

Ross Fowler, vice president of services at Cisco, said during a Web conference this afternoon that Cisco's infrastructure will support the massive enterprise adoption of collaboration and virtualization technologies currently under way as businesses break down the borders created by traditional firewalls in order to collaborate more effectively internally as well as with partners and customers.

"Our user services and network services will provide this borderless experience for our customers," Fowler said.

Fowler said the second generation of its Integrated Services Router, the ISR G2, offers as much as five times the performance of its predecessor, the Cisco ISR, which has sold over 7 million units since it was introduced in 2004.

The ISR G2 includes video-ready architecture and new video digital signal processors to support increased business video adoption, which is expected to climb to 77.6 percent by 2012, according to Cisco VNI Research.

ISR G2 allows IT administrators to dynamically deploy virtual services in branches and comes with up to 1 terabyte of on-board storage, which is useful for video surveillance deployments, and supports up to seven times the performance of previous network modules.

One example of the ISR G2 series is the Cisco 3900, which includes embedded hardware encryption acceleration, voice- and video-capable digital signal processor (DSP) slots, optional firewall, intrusion prevention, call processing, voicemail and application services. In addition, the platforms support the industry's widest range of wired and wireless connectivity options such as T1/E1, T3/E3, xDSL, Copper and Fiber GE.

WAN performance compared to the previous generation is up to 150 Mbps with services, compared to 45 Mbps with services, a multicore processor (as opposed to single) and a field-upgradeable motherboard (as opposed to a single motherboard).