Best of Interop Networking Finalist: Cisco ISR 4451-X

Enabling a Platform for Branch Innovation

In an era of content explosion, where IT is challenged by exponential traffic growth due to mobility, video, cloud and Internet of Things – no place is this problem more acute than the branch office where businesses typically engage customers.

To address this critical need, Cisco is pleased to announce the availability of Cisco ISR 4451-X Converged Branch Infrastructure, a new platform for innovation that integrates world-class network, compute and storage to deliver unprecedented performance and power into an all-in-one box solution at an unbeatable total cost of ownership. This solution has also been recognized as one of the finalist for Best of Interop in the Networking category, which further underscores the unique innovation Cisco is bringing to the industry.

The solution includes:

Cisco Integrated Services Router 4451-X, a 2RU form factor with up to 2 Gigabit raw performance and the broadest set of networking services offered natively on the routers, including WAN optimization

Cisco Unified Computing System E-Series server module, our latest X86 data-center class blade based on the Ivy Bridge architecture that provides 4 cores and 8 Gigabytes of DRAM (upgradable to 16 Gigabytes of DRAM and 2 Terabytes of storage)

Cisco EtherSwitch 24-port module, offering the latest advances in our catalyst technology that includes support for MacSec, TrustSec and optional POE+ on all ports at line rate

Additional options include:

Application Experience software license, providing a right to use license for VPN, threat defense, application visibility and control, WAN path control, WAN optimization services, all running natively on the router

Unified Communications software licenses, providing voice services with survivability, voicemail all running natively on the router

Wireless LAN controller software license, to support WiFi architecture using virtualized services on the UCS E-Series

JouleX energy management running on the virtual machine of the UCS E-Series to monitor and minimize power usage.

So, why did this solution get selected as one of the top three finalist at Interop?

The Cisco ISR 4451-X brings together the most significant advancements in branch IT since the introduction of the ISR family in 2005. It offers this without compromising performance, security and management. IT will greatly benefit from a flexible pay-as-you-grow model, that allows them to adopt capabilities – performance, services, compute – as their business requires.

IT will especially appreciate the ability to integrate data center-class compute right onto the 2RU platform, allowing local hosting of business applications like point-of-sales in retail, medical healthcare databases exchange system in healthcare, critical network services like file, print, DNS, and Replica Active Directory, as well as local backup storage. Also, the new service containers on the router allows for faster innovation of new services needed out at the branch. With an agile platform like the ISR 4451-X, the possibilities are endless.

It is hard to believe how many network services Cisco has consolidated into 2RU, which would typically require up to 8RU of different appliances. This type of consolidation not only minimizes the branch footprint, but it also can save hundreds of thousands in operational expenses on power as well as eliminate the costs of sending technicians to stores to install or update router or servers. By providing a complete branch infrastructure in quarter of the space, the Cisco ISR4451-X frees up more real estate to sell product and provide customer service. The customers also have the flexibility to quickly add new IT services such as sales analytics, digital signage, or customer behavior analysis without the time and costs of adding physical servers. IT no longer slows down the speed of business.

Finally network uptime is greatly improved with a redundant purpose built platform while support costs are brought down with integrated hardware support in a single platform.

As IT teams prepare their branch environments for the future, evaluating this offer is a must. Again and again, we hear happy customers who have regained controlled over an ever-chaotic network environment, and have the tools in place to quickly response to today’s business requirements while preparing for the future ahead. A great example is Halifax Media Group, who has been able to accelerate acquisition integration and seamlessly address disaster recovery with a powerful one-box solution.

What more can you ask for? On April 1st, I am confident that the Interop judges will agree that a platform enabling this level of unprecedented of business innovation and agility with IT simplicity, will be the clear choice.