Cisco Delivers a Data Center Switching Platform

Today’s announcement features a new data center platform with both hardware and software innovations, including:

• The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, the flagship data center-class
  switching platform combining Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities
  across one unified network fabric
• The Cisco Trusted Security (TrustSec) architecture
• An advanced operating system, the Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS), and the Cisco Data Center Network Manager

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is the flagship member of the Cisco
Nexus Family, the first in a new data center class of switching
products. The Nexus 7000 is a highly scalable modular platform that
delivers up to 15 terabits per second of switching capacity in a single
chassis, supporting up to 512 10-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) Ethernet
and future delivery of 40- and 100-Gbps Ethernet. Its unified fabric
architecture combines Ethernet and storage capabilities into a single
platform, designed to provide all servers with access to all network
and storage resources. This enables data center consolidation and
virtualization. Key components of the unified fabric architecture
include unified I/O interfaces and Fibre Channel over Ethernet support
to be delivered in the future.

The Nexus 7000 is designed specifically for the data center with
improved airflow, integrated cable management, and a resilient platform
architecture. The data plane is fully distributed and, when coupled
with the Cisco NX-OS operating system, is designed to enable zero
service-disruption upgrades on production systems. This provides a
seamless systems design that reduces administrative tasks and
simplifies complex systems operations.

A unified fabric architecture

Building data centers based on a unified fabric eliminates the need
for parallel storage and computational networks, reducing the number of
server interfaces and significantly reducing the cabling and switching
infrastructure required. A unified fabric also enables customers to
move to higher-density server form factors, increasing the IT workload
output of each data center. Combined with virtualization, this new
technology will help customers to build more efficient and sustainable
data centers, maximizing IT workload for each facility and saving more
power overall than the network generally consumes. The Nexus 7000
architecture is designed around this lossless unified fabric capable of
simultaneously forwarding storage, Ethernet, and IP traffic. The fabric
scales performance linearly with each fabric module and is logically
partitioned for efficient unicast and multicast traffic, making it
ideally suited for market data video as well as collaboration
applications.

Microsoft is currently performing rigorous testing of the Nexus 7000
Series for security, manageability and performance in a lab
environment. "We appreciate the modular processes of the Cisco Nexus
operating system designed to resolve problems in real time without
impact to production traffic, as well as data center-class
high-availability features and unified fabric support," said Debra
Chrapaty, corporate vice president, Global Foundation Services,
Microsoft.

Powered by NX-OS software

At the heart of the Nexus 7000 Series is the NX-OS software,
purpose-built to maximize data center resiliency and to consolidate
disparate networks. NX-OS combines the best of Cisco’s SAN-OS, Layer 2
switching, Layer 3 routing protocols, and advanced virtualization
capabilities into one reliable operating system with the familiar Cisco
IOS® interface.

NX-OS has many innovative features, including:

• Zero-service-disruption upgrades
• Virtual device contexts
• Graceful systems operations
• XML interfaces to access switch information or any command
• NX-OS delivers zero-service-disruption system upgrades to maximize
  production uptime while self-diagnostic capabilities continuously track
  each software component in the operating system. If a failure is
  detected, NX-OS policies enable stateful process restart without
  service disruption. This modular design provides fault containment and
  automatic recovery so that processes can be remotely started, stopped
  and upgraded without human intervention.

Innovative virtualization capabilities such as virtual device
contexts allow the system to be partitioned into multiple logical
devices, each with its own processes and command-line interface running
independent of one another. This system may be used by hosting
providers and complex enterprise administrative models, to be shared by
multiple administrators concurrently, each with its own switching
environment.

Cisco Trusted
Security

The Nexus 7000 Series is the first platform to deliver Cisco Trusted
Security, a new architecture introduced last month that integrates
identity- and role-based security across data centers.
Cisco TrustSec enforces trusted traffic segmentation without requiring
complex addressing models and unmanageable access control lists. This
enables virtual machine mobility throughout the data center while
helping to ensure data integrity with a wire-rate AES-128 encryption
implementation on every port of the Nexus 7000.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory has reviewed the new Cisco data center switch for
the high performance computing systems scientists employ for national
security research. Applications such as research in fusion energy,
atmospheric modeling, and the simulation of other physical phenomena,
can benefit greatly from increased network bandwidth for data movement
between parallel file systems and archival storage. "The future-proof
architecture of this new data center platform has great potential to
enhance the scientific computing capabilities critical to our national
and global security missions," said Doug East, High Performance
Computing Manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "We can
see applicability for our environment because of its scalability, the
enhanced security features, innovative virtualization features, and
immediate improved performance through high density 10-Gigabit Ethernet
and the ability to support 40 Gigabits and 100 Gigabits in the future."

Cisco Data Center
Network Manager

Supporting the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, the Cisco Data Center
Network Manager (DCNM) provides visibility across data center networks.
Built on the foundation of Cisco Fabric Manager for storage networks,
DCNM provides topology discovery and visualization for increased
operational efficiency and systems awareness. Nexus 7000 management
interfaces are fully compatible with Cisco VFrame Data Center, an
orchestration platform that uses network intelligence to provision
resources together as virtualized services. VFrame DC will be a key
enabler for services orchestration on the Nexus platform.

"With the new Nexus 7000 platform, Cisco is on track to deliver its
vision for next-generation data centers by simplifying data center
operations and supporting the transition to a unified fabric," said
Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of Enterprise Research, Yankee
Group. "Following the Catalyst model, Cisco also designed the Nexus
platform with longevity in mind, providing ease of migration,
investment protection, and a clear roadmap for future upgrades that
will help virtualize IT services within the network."

Pricing and availability

The Nexus 7000 Series starts at $75,000, can be ordered globally
now, and is planned to be generally available in the second quarter of
calendar year 2008. Cisco Capital SM is offering financing for data
center solutions globally. In the United States, Cisco Capital is
offering lease rates as low as 3.99 percent APR for the Cisco Nexus
7000.

Cisco