Cisco expanded its Nexus 9000 data center switching line with the introduction of two new models: the Nexus 9504 and Nexus 9516. The new switches leverage the centralized policy-driven automation of the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) and application profiles to help organizations build highly secure cloud networks and hybrid clouds.
- The Nexus 9516 boasts up to 576 wire-speed 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 60 Tbps throughput, making it the industry's highest density wire rate switch, according to Cisco.
- The Nexus 9504 provides a cost effective option to solve migration from core-aggregation-access to spine leaf architectures. With the Nexus 9504 partners now have new engagement options for customers seeking lower density aggregation and access designs.
Cisco also announced an addition to the Nexus 3000 family: the new Nexus 3164Q switch designed for massively scalable data centers (MSDC) and big data.
- The Nexus 3164Q supports a range of automation tools for Cloud providers including Linux Container support, XML, JSON, Puppet/Chef, Python, and OpenStack. It delivers flexible connectivity for either 40 Gigabit or 10 Gigabits ports (up to 256 10Gigabit ports) in a 2 RU and a rich NX-OS feature set.
"Through automation and programmability embedded within our NX-OS platforms, training, support, and certifications, we are empowering over two million networking engineers and thousands of channel partners worldwide to enable our enterprise, commercial, service provider and cloud customers to expand their skill sets while embracing on-premise private and hybrid cloud models with ACI in the data center and across the Access and WAN," said Soni Jiandani, SVP, Cisco.
Cisco noted that its Nexus 3000 switches are being used by eight of the 10 leading cloud providers' networks for the majority of their footprint.
du, a leading integrated telecommunications service provider in the United Arab Emirates and the fastest growing operator in the Middle East, is consolidating several data facilities into two next generation data centers designed to host new cloud services.
http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1372860
In January 2014, as part of its recently launched Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) initiative, Cisco introduced an Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) Enterprise Module for extending
high-performing applications from the data center to wide-area networks (WAN) and local access networks (LAN). The goal is to provide enterprises with complete visibility into their networks, automating network and policy configuration while managing applications across the WAN and access networks.
The foundation for ACI is an Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), enhanced versions of the NX-OS data center switching operating system, and a new line of Nexus 9000 data center switches based on technology from Insieme Networks, the Cisco spin-in start-up that is being acquired and re-integrated into the company.
The Cisco APIC is a centralized clustered controller that is responsible for tasks ranging from fabric activation, maintenance of switch firmware, network policy configuration and instantiation. Cisco APIC is
completely removed from the data path.
The Cisco APIC serves as the single point of automation and fabric element management in
both physical and virtual environments.
The Cisco APIC Enterprise Module is constructed of three elements: a consolidated network information database, policy infrastructure and automation.
To address security concerns, Cisco APIC automates network-wide rapid threat detection and mitigation by integrating and automating Cisco Sourcefire security solutions. For compliance management across branches and headquarters, Cisco APIC also provides network-wide Quality of Service (QoS), and accelerates Intelligent WAN (IWAN) deployments. It can also be used with third-party solutions to provide an end-to-end WAN orchestration and management.
Cisco said its APIC frees up time for IT that would otherwise be spent configuring networking equipment and updating policy changes device by device. It automates many IT functions enabling configuration and policy changes to be pushed out to the individual components of the network instead of requiring IT to update each one manually. It also enables policies to automatically adapt to network changes which would be very difficult to set otherwise.
Cisco APIC supports both new and existing network infrastructures via a selection of network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), including OpenFlow, Cisco onePK and Command Line Interface (CLI). The Cisco APIC Enterprise Module also supports both new SDN-ready devices as well as older Cisco network equipment, enabling the same IT automation as with Cisco ACI for a large existing installed base that eliminates the need to rip and replace existing networking equipment to take advantage of this new functionality.
The Cisco APIC Enterprise Module leverages the Glue Networks' "Gluware Intelligent Orchestration Engine"
