Cisco announces 40GbE Nexus switches, Cisco One

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cisco introduced a range of new products across its data center and cloud portfolio. The new products range from Nexus 6000 Series Switches, its 40 Gigabit Layer2/Layer 3 fixed switch, to Nexus 1000V InterCloud; for connecting private enterprise and service provider clouds, to Open Network Environment (ONE) portfolio; a key element in Cisco's Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture.

Cisco announced two new switches under its Nexus 6000 series, Nexus 6004 and Nexus 6001, which are capable of Ethernet and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 1-microsecond latency across all ports.

The Nexus 6004 can provide density up to 96 ports of line rate 40GE (384 ports of line rate 10GE) in a compact 4 RU (rack unit) form factor; while Nexus 6001 can offer line rate 48 ports of GE/10GE fixed ports with 4 ports of 40GE (or 16 ports of 10GE) uplinks in 1 RU form factor.

These switches bring 10GE/40GE density in a fixed form factor, and offer network visibility and programmability and run Cisco NX-OS with integrated layer 2 and 3 feature set. They are meant for high performance access, leaf/spine architectures, compact aggregation, or high-density FEX aggregation deployment options for building a scalable Cisco Unified Fabric, says a release.

Cisco also added services modules to its Nexus 7000 Series, and 40-gigabit uplink extensions to its Nexus 5000 and 2000 product lines. With these extensions, Cisco's Unified Fabric portfolio now delivers 40-gigabit solution meant for virtual and cloud deployments of converged networks with 10G and 40G FCoE support.

Cisco also introduced new Nexus 7000 Series Network Analysis Module (NAM), its data center switch, which brings application awareness and performance analytics to its Nexus 7000 switch.

The new Nexus 5500 40GE module provides customer with the option of deploying 40GE uplinks in their existing Nexus 5500 to reduce over-subscription, while the new Nexus 2248PQ switch provides a 10GE top-of-rack fabric extender with 40GE uplinks.

Cisco has also developed a new technology in its Nexus 1000V distributed virtual switch that allows enterprise workloads to be placed in service provider clouds, through a single point of management without compromising on security, the release adds.

The new Nexus 1000V InterCloud orchestrates hybrid cloud environments by extending corporate enterprise environments into the provider cloud. The Nexus 1000V InterCloud preserves existing networking capabilities and L4-7 services while bringing manageability of the enterprise into the provider cloud, the release adds.

Cisco's new Virtual Network Management Center (VNMC) InterCloud offers new capabilities including a single policy point for network services across both enterprise and provider domains; the ability to manage virtual machine lifecycle across multiple hypervisors in hybrid clouds; and the ability to manage multiple provider clouds via APIs.

Cisco also announced Cisco One Software Controller that which supports an architecture; a multiprotocol interfaces with One Platform Kit (onePK) and OpenFlow; consistent management, troubleshooting and security features; and built-in applications that include network slicing functionality for enabling logical partitioning of network resources.

Moreover, the ONE Controller will interact with Cisco networking applications such as Custom Forwarding and Network Tapping.

Cisco expanded platform support for Cisco onePK developer environment with Nexus 3000, Nexus 7000 and ASR 9000. Solutions for overlay networks including Nexus 1000V support for VXLAN Gateway; Nexus 1000V support for Microsoft Hyper-V and integration with Microsoft System Center VM Manager; virtual Network Analysis Module (vNAM) for network analysis and monitoring of virtualized and cloud workloads.

Expanded platform support for OpenFlow with Nexus 3000, Nexus 7000, ASR 9000 and Catalyst 6500.

The Nexus 6004 24 x 40 GE is scheduled to be available Q1CY2013 and is priced at $90,000; the Nexus 6004 48 x 40 GE is scheduled to be available Q1CY2013 and is priced at $195,000.

The Nexus 6004, 12 x 40 GE LEM is scheduled to be available Q1CY2013 and is priced at $40,000; the Nexus 6001 is scheduled to be available in 1HCY2013 and pricing will be announced at a later date.

The Nexus 5000 40GE module is scheduled to be available 1HCY13 and pricing will be announced at a later date; the Nexus 2248PQ is available now and is priced at $12,000; the Nexus 7000 NAM is scheduled to be available 1HCY13 and pricing will be announced at a later date.

Both the Nexus 1000V InterCloud and VNMC InterCloud are scheduled to be available in 1HCY13; pricing to be announced at a later date.

The following products are scheduled to be available in 1HCY13:
The Cisco ONE Controller and application support; CSR 1000V Cloud Services Router; Cisco onePK support on the Nexus 3000 and on ISR G2, and ASR 1K platforms; OpenFlow support on Nexus 3000; Nexus 1000V support for Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center VM Manager and VXLAN Gateway.

The following products are scheduled to enter customer trials in 1HCY13:
onePK support on Nexus 3000, Nexus 7000 and ASR 9000; Openflow support on Nexus 3000, Nexus 7000, ASR 9000 and Catalyst 6500; and Virtual NAM.

Pricing for the Cisco ONE solutions to be announced at a later date.