Cisco IP NGN Multiservice Edge Innovations Enable Delivery of Predictable Business Services Including Cisco TelePresence and Managed Security

SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 19, 2007 -- Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced further enhancements to its Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture designed to enable the development and delivery of business services with predictable performance. The new Multi-Service Blade (MSB) for the Cisco XR 12000 Series routing platform features integral, route-aware, firewall and video/voice session border control (SBC) functionality for Cisco TelePresence and other advanced applications. These innovations build on the platform's highly secure resource virtualization and continuous systems operation to enable the delivery of multiple services over a single, converged IP infrastructure. The MSB is extensible, enhancing return on investment by enabling new service deployment through the more than 35,000 Cisco 12000 Series Routers currently deployed in service provider networks.

Integration of these functions with the XR 12000 Series Router enables providers to move beyond appliance-based service-level agreement (SLA) management, increasing efficiency of advanced services such as collaboration solutions based on the Cisco TelePresence Meeting Solution. The MSB helps providers eliminate the need for overlay networks and stand-alone appliances to deliver voice, video and network-based security services over Layer 2 and Layer 3 virtual private networks (VPNs). Memory and CPU resources in the MSB are allocated utilizing Secure Virtualization methods pioneered by Cisco for its IOS® XR operating system and originally used to implement router resource virtualization and Secure Domain Routers.

"Service provider networks today must meet strict performance requirements to deliver business-grade IP voice and video services with service-level agreements," said Eve Griliches, research manager, IDC. "By integrating these capabilities as well as quality of service, scalability and high-availability features into the router, providers can better control and manage existing services delivered over their VPNs while easily adding advanced new services such as the Cisco TelePresence Meeting Solution to their portfolios."

Virtual Firewall

The integral firewall on the MSB inspects traffic flows and prevents unauthorized access to protected resources.

Supporting 8 Gbps of throughput, the MSB helps organizations meet future growth requirements without requiring complete system overhauls. Integral service virtualization on the MSB enables both service providers and large enterprises to implement separate policies for different customers or functional areas over the same physical infrastructure. The route-aware infrastructure enables seamless integration of the virtual firewall at the public IP peering point or as a 'shared services' facing router.

Building on the development of a next-generation IP network to enhance SAVVIS' application infrastructure, SAVVIS, Inc. has adopted the Cisco MSB as the basis of managed security services. SAVVIS' new network, based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture, will further enhance SAVVIS' ability to deliver information technology (IT) "infrastructure-as-a-service."

"The Cisco MSB enables the delivery of managed network-based firewall, network address translation and other value-added services normally implemented using redundant CPE equipment or separate network appliances," said Bryan Doerr, chief technology officer of SAVVIS. "SAVVIS is a leader in providing virtualized network and computing solutions and Cisco's innovations will allow us to further virtualize services and offer higher availability and better overall performance guarantees to our business and government customers."

Session Border Control (SBC) Integration for Cisco TelePresence and Voice

The MSB's integral SBC provides per-session control and management of IP multimedia traffic based on widely used protocols such as SIP and H.323 for signaling and interoperability. It also supports the TISPAN architecture based on the H.248 protocol enabling distributed signaling and media implementations of session border control.

The integral SBC enables voice and video call access control, helping to ensure that bandwidth is available to support sessions before they begin. This ensures that a new session is not admitted that could cause degradation of currently active services. It can scale to support more than 200,000 simultaneous sessions on a single chassis, eliminating additional appliances and overlay networks. With its high-throughput interface into the Cisco XR 12000 switching fabric, the SBC scales up to 80 Gbps to enable all existing IP voice and video services as well as advanced collaboration applications such as Cisco TelePresence.

Intelligence and Reliability

The integral firewall and SBC are route-aware and help eliminate packet loss for advanced voice and video applications as well as security services. These features are fully integrated with the advanced high-availability features of the Cisco XR 12000 Series, providing maximum service availability for real-time voice and video sessions.

The MSB introduces no single point of failure and features active/standby configuration with active session preservation and stateful failover for switchovers, as well as in-service software/maintenance updates.

"Cisco is committed to simplifying network operations and reducing the total cost of ownership for service providers by integrating what were previously overlay technologies into the native router infrastructure," said Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of the Cisco Service Provider Technology Group. "Integral route-aware service virtualization is just the latest innovation in Cisco's continuing effort to enable service providers to profitably deliver advanced voice and video services."

For more information, please visit the Cisco Website: www.cisco.com/go/pbservices.

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