Cisco Systems has made several improvements to its Ethernet switches to protect businesses from security threats as well as help them run Internet Protocol telephony more reliably.
On Tuesday, the company announced a slew of enhancements to its Catalyst line of switches, including new Supervisor Engines for its Catalyst 6500 and 4500 switches, and several new capabilities across its product line. The new products and enhancements are designed to help customers more affordably extend security and resiliency across their entire network from the core all the way to access switches, where individual servers and desktops are connected.
"We"re offering features that people typically associate with more expensive core switches on less-expensive switches designed for the access layer," said John McCool, vice president and general manager of Cisco"s Gigabit switching unit. For its Catalyst 6500 switch, Cisco is introducing the new Supervisor Engine 32, a switch engine that has 32 gigabits per second of forwarding capacity. The Supervisor 32 is based on technology found in the Supervisor Engine 720, which has 720gbps of forwarding capacity. Like its big brother, the Supervisor 32 provides security features, such as denial-of-service protection, in hardware.