Why is the New Cisco ISR 1000 Important for Small and Medium-sized Businesses?

Why can a single device be so important for small and medium businesses (SMBs)? How can it run the normal day-to-day operations—such as phones, printers, computers and WiFi?

For SMBs, Cisco’s 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 1000) provide an affordable solution for switching, routing, and wireless all in one device.

Plus, today’s operations are more complex—going way beyond the basics. SMBs have little-to-no-IT resources, time, energy or skills to handle this new normal of business practices. For those who are interested in how it works, watch this 2-minute video:

SMBs, like all businesses, need secure, simple and affordable IT options that will protect their critical business intellectual property, block or guard against risky practices, set policies and offer backup connectivity—all while having the ability to connect every device within any point in the network.

Having the right device to run day-to-day operations can transform your SMB.

Let’s imagine you are a small business that deals with the public in retail, finance, education or other commercial firms. You want your customers to be able to use the Wi-Fi guest access without any threat of them viewing financial, identity, health or other private records. “The last thing a clinic wants is for the network to be hacked and for patients’ records to be exposed. You want to provide guest access which is independent of the clinic’s network. In technical terms, it’s called network segmentation, which is simple to do with an ISR 1000.” says Shankar Ramachandran, Product Line Manager for Cisco Integrated Services Routers.”

Companies need fast, secure and reliable connectivity. “Driving employee engagement has been at the forefront of effective management for decades, but now more than ever, it is central to employee attraction and retention,” writes one Forbes reporter in a recent article.

Four reasons to consider the all-in-one ISR 1000

Cisco’s versatile 1000 Series Integrated Services Router is like a small office or branch office-in-a-box for your business, school, clinic or retail location. Here are the top four reasons why:

All-in-one solution — Routing, wireless and switching are combined in a single device with Cisco’s trusted IOS® XE software. Internet access, comprehensive security, and management are combined in a single, high-performance device. Plus, with pay-as-you-grow performance licensing you can avoid unnecessary hardware upgrades and save on CapEx.

Advanced wired and wireless access — All of your devices connected to the network with advanced connectivity options like 4G LTE, DSL, copper and fiber Ethernet. Plus, ISR 1000s have a built-in wireless access point that includes integrated wireless controller capability, so you have the fastest way to wirelessly connect an entire network or office site, quickly, easily and affordably. With Cisco’s Mobility Express you can support up to 100 Cisco APs and 2,000 connected client devices on a single Wi-Fi network.

Enterprise-class security — With integrated security features like IP Security, high-performance VPN’s and Encrypted Traffic Analytics, the ISR 1000 is always on, always open to protect your desktops, tablets and mobile devices and content from malware and ransomware. In addition, Cisco Umbrella is a cloud security platform that provides the first line of defense against threats on the Internet wherever users go, blocking malicious attacks and DDOS attacks before a connection is ever established. It will even help identify where the next attack will emerge.

Cisco Software-Defined WAN Evolution — With Cisco SD-WAN you can define policies and prioritize traffic all from one management console. Zero-touch deployment across the WAN means you can deploy, manage, operate and secure your network quickly and easily, so you can get back to your business.

Small business customers want simple, affordable and reliable IT, so they can provide secure guest networks, optimize applications for their employees and focus on growing their business.  With a single box that includes routing, switching and wireless, as well as security and management, the ISR 1000 provides a perfect solution. “We believe our small business customers can now affordably have all the power to run their operations in a single device, which saves critical time and money”, says Shankar Ramachandran.

For more information about the Cisco ISR 1000:

Visit: cisco.com/go/isr1000

View: Cisco ISR 1000 for SMBs video

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