Cisco Sharpens the Enterprise Edge With Flagship Catalyst 6500 Switching Platform

Greater Application Control and Advanced Security Services in the Campus and WAN Edge Deliver Optimal Customer Experience of Business Applications


SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 30, 2007 -- In today's anytime, anywhere business environment, new interactive multi-media applications are increasingly deployed across the campus and the extended network to enhance productivity and innovation. To help ensure positive experiences with new applications such as Internet Protocol (IP) video, voice over IP (VoIP) and TelePresence while maintaining industry-leading service levels for existing business-critical applications, Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today introduced the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with Programmable Intelligent Services Accelerator (PISA) technology.

Cisco also introduced a blueprint for network services called the Campus Communication Fabric that guides information technology (IT) managers through the transformation of their network into a strategic platform for all communications and collaboration. Highlights of today's introductions include:

--  Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with Programmable
    Intelligent Services Accelerator (PISA) Technology:  The first modular
    switch to integrate the ability to analyze stateful and stateless
    application traffic flows for proactive security protection, compliance
    with corporate policies and management of network resource utilization.
    These innovations help IT managers optimize business-critical applications,
    control non-business applications and meet governance risk and compliance
    regulations.
--  Expanded WAN Services Aggregation Portfolio with Catalyst 6500
    Capabilities and Cisco 7201 Router:  The Catalyst 6500 has evolved into
    both a modular switch and a router with high port density and wide-area
    network (WAN) routing in a single chassis.  The Cisco 7201 is a new
    compact, high-performance router in the Cisco 7200 Series.
    
"Collaboration tools, software as a service, security, mobility, and numerous other traffic types are changing application traffic flows and driving a need for more advanced services at the network edge," said Abner Germanow, director of Enterprise Networks Research at IDC. "These changing flows are causing network managers to look beyond basic monitoring to find solutions that provide greater visibility and control as an integral part of the network."

Transforming the Campus Edge with Application Intelligence and Advanced Security

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA integrates deep packet-inspection capabilities to enable IT managers to identify applications on the network and then allocate the necessary network resources to support each application based on business priorities. In this manner, IT managers can help ensure that when end users are accessing business-critical applications they have the best possible experiences. The new Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA also provides distributed protection against notable worms and viruses and day-zero attacks in the campus edge using Flexible Packet Matching (FPM) technology. These new capabilities are hardware-accelerated on the new Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA and therefore can scale to multi-gigabit speeds.

PDL BioPharma, a leader in the development of innovative therapies for serious and life-threatening illnesses based in Fremont, Calif., is evaluating the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA technology for its campus wide deployment. The new site will offer high-speed 10-gigabit interconnects with gigabit-to-the-desktop performance for end users.

"We see an ideal fit for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA technology at our campus edge, to help manage application prioritization and increase overall security, manageability and availability," said Luis Chanu, global network and security architect, PDL BioPharma. "The Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA would allow us to pervasively deploy security and application quality of service at the edge of our network, provide protection against notable worm and virus threats and isolate noncritical applications like routine lab data replication so that the necessary bandwidth for more critical applications like voice and development applications is available."

Transforming the WAN with End-to-End Services

Cisco helps customers extend and scale services consistently and with industry-leading security from the campus network to the WAN edge and remote office with the introduction of the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA and the Cisco 7201 Router. Cisco Catalyst 6500 leadership with integrated services such as firewalls, IP Security (IPsec) and embedded application-aware intelligence makes the latest addition of PISA technology well-suited for enterprise WAN edge deployments.

The Cisco 7201 Router extends the Cisco 7200 Series and provides a dramatic increase in performance compared with previous generations, along with lower power consumption. In a compact one-rack-unit form factor with four built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports, the Cisco 7201 Router is ideal for WAN and metropolitan-area network (MAN) applications for both service providers and enterprises.

"Cisco continues to build innovative solutions with advanced features that meet our customers' current and future application performance and high security needs for the LAN, MAN and WAN," said Marie Hattar, senior director of Cisco Network Systems. "Companies can now consider the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA and Cisco 7201 Router for a complete, end-to-end network services infrastructure that can easily grow and evolve with their business needs."

Pricing and Expected Availability

Product                                  List Price (US)      Availability

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor       $28,000            June 2007
 Engine 32 with PISA Technology and 8x1
 Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor       $28,000            June 2007
 Engine 32 with PISA Technology and 2x10
 Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks

Cisco 7201 Router                           $24,000               Now
For more information on the Cisco Campus Communication Fabric blueprint of network services, please visit www.cisco.com/go/ccf.

About Cisco Systems

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Contact Information: Media Contacts: Linda Horiuchi Cisco 408-853-5464 lhoriuch@cisco.com Industry Analyst Contacts: Rebecca Noriega Cisco 408-853-5819 rnoriega@cisco.com Investor Relations Contact: Liz Lemon Cisco 408 527-8452 lemon@cisco.com