Cisco Boosts Borderless Network Architecture, Security

Cisco on Tuesday announced the release of a range of new products and services across its Borderless Network architecture, which provides high-performance switching, routing, wireless networking, and security.

"IT managers are under increasing pressure to make the network available to anyone, anywhere, anytime, and on any device -- in a highly secure, reliable, seamless manner," said Brett Galloway, senior VP for the wireless, security, and routing technology group at Cisco, in a statement. "This is precisely the challenge that the Cisco Borderless Network was designed to address."

New additions include the Cisco Catalyst switch, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) firewall, and compact Cisco ASR 1000 Series router. Cisco said each offers the highest performance and density of any Cisco product in its class. For example, the Cisco Catalyst switch now provides 848 Gbps of system bandwidth.

Meanwhile the Cisco ASA 5585-X firewall, which includes an intrusion prevention system (IPS) and remote access via Cisco AnyConnect, supports 20 Gbps of multiprotocol throughput, 35Gbps of large packet throughput, as well as 10,000 VPN connections, 350,000 connections per second, and 8 million total connections. Except for its IPS blade, which is due to be released by the end of the year, all of the ASA 5585-X features are now shipping.

Also, on the security front, the new version 3.0 of Cisco AnyConnect adds support for Apple OS X, Apple iOS, and Windows 7, and extends cloud-based ScanSafe security services to mobile workers. While the product already supported Secure Sockets Layer and Datagram Transport Layer Security, the new version also adds support for IPsec IKEv2 support, integrates an 802.1X supplicant -- software for providing client credentials -- and includes 802.1AE MACSec support.

Cisco also introduced a new, entry-level 802.11n wireless access point -- the Cisco Aironet 1040 Series Access Point -- aimed at smaller businesses. It's also meant to drive increased adoption of 802.11n, which -- according to the Wi-Fi Alliance -- provides better range, robustness, and performance than previous wireless networking standards.