Cisco Unveils Fundamental Change in Enterprise Networking: New Unified Access Products Converge Wired, Wireless to Build Simple, Secure, Open Networks

New Catalyst Switches and WLAN Controllers based on Cisco Unified Access Architecture Simplify BYOD, User Policy Enforcement and Network Administration While Scaling Wireless Performance

Cisco Live! London – January 29, 2013 – As organizations face the challenge of managing the growth of mobile devices and business applications across multiple networks, these businesses are finding it difficult to consistently find time to address issues that are enabling innovation and agility within the business.

To help simplify network operation issues, Cisco today announced new solutions under the Cisco Unified Access™ umbrella that simplify network design by converging wired and wireless networks. The new Unified Access products deliver consistent simplicity and intelligence across the entire network, enabling IT organizations to shift the focus away from time-consuming operational activities to those that enable innovative and smart business processes. Cisco Unified Access also includes features such as software-defined networking (SDN) open interfaces, which offer greater investment protection through support of new features in the future.

Previously, wireless networks have been built as overlays to the wired network, resulting in two logical networks to manage, with disparate features and services, and with increased complexity. These problems have been compounded as users have brought multiple devices onto the network, leading to difficulty within IT of implementing common access policies, enabling bring your own device (BYOD) trends, securing the network and providing an uncompromised experience.

Cisco Unified Access is Cisco’s strategy to unify wired, wireless and virtual private networks (VPNs), into a single, highly secure network infrastructure based on one policy source and one management solution for the entire campus network.

The Cisco Unified Access network architecture converges processing of wired and wireless traffic into a single data plane, based on the new Cisco Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC. This new ASIC terminates wired and wireless traffic, provides high performance and scale, and enables consistent services to be applied to both wired and wireless, simplifying life for network administrators. The UADP ASIC features a programmable data plane, enabling deployment of software-defined networking services.

Cisco today announced two new Cisco Unified Access networking products featuring the UADP ASIC:

• New Cisco Catalyst® 3850 Unified Access Switch with built-in wireless LAN (WLAN) controller functionality
• New Cisco® 5760 Unified Access WLAN Controller appliance featuring IOS-based software and 60Gbps performance

Additionally, Cisco announced new versions of the Cisco Unified Access policy and management solutions:

• New Cisco® Identity Services Engine (ISE) 1.2
• New Cisco® Prime™ Infrastructure 2.0

With the increasing need to connect more people, data, processes and things to the network, the role of wireless and wired networks is growing and network operations and feature requirements are becoming more complex. The new enhancements to Cisco Unified Access allow IT organizations to rapidly manage changing network demands and greater services innovations.

Cisco Unified Access is composed of:

One network includes a faster, more intelligent access layer that handles the onslaught of new devices and applications, introducing:

• The new Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch, delivering one physical infrastructure for wired and wireless networks. The Catalyst 3850 Switch offers integrated wired and wireless LAN controller functionality. It also supports common and consistent network intelligence, with network-wide visibility and analytics for faster troubleshooting, and granular hierarchical quality of service (QoS) across the entire wired-wireless infrastructure. This common and consistent intelligence is based on the use of one IOS and one wired-wireless ASIC – the new Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC.
• A new IOS-based Cisco 5760 Wireless LAN Controller device. Utilizing the Cisco UADP ASIC, the 5760 delivers 60Gbps of capacity with hierarchical QoS capabilities for a centralized deployment.
• Cisco onePK open architecture for software-defined networking, a developer toolkit that allows applications to receive information from Cisco switches and routers offering a programmable data plane that enables investment protection through fast feature rollout. Cisco onePK aligns with Cisco’s software strategy to allow the programmability of networks and reaffirms Cisco’s continued investment in software and SDN.

One policy to manage a context-based central policy across wired, wireless and VPN networks, including:

• Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) lets administrators create one simplified policy for multiple access methods and device types. ISE allows IT operations to set automated access control enforcement with a policy that regulates security, device control and user authentication, regardless of whether business end users connect to the company network via wired, wireless or VPN.
• The new Cisco ISE 1.2 release adds mobile device management (MDM) integration with top industry solutions, including Good, Airwatch, MobileIron, Zenprise and SAP, to improve mobile device management and deliver a single simplified policy management solution.

One management to deliver a converged platform for visibility and performance assurance of applications and services across the entire network, featuring:

• Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.0 delivering a 360-degree experience across applications, services and end-users and offering new automated workflows to simplify network operations. Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.0 is also updated to allow IT to integrate the new Unified Access infrastructure components, including the Cisco Catalyst 3850 switch and Cisco 5760 Wireless LAN Controller.

All products are currently available, with the exception of Cisco Prime 2.0 (scheduled to be available Q2CY13) and Cisco ISE 1.2 (March 2013).

Cisco Unified Access Enables the ‘Internet of Everything’

Unified Access is the business foundation for enabling the “Internet of Everything” – intelligently connecting people, data, processes and things with greater simplicity, intelligence, scale, efficiency, open interfaces and security. Unified Access helps customers make the transition to the Internet of Everything, ultimately allowing them to introduce innovative user services that are enabled by network-wide simplicity, intelligence and analytics, scale, faster service rollout and better change management.

Unified Access Launch at Cisco Live London 2013

Cisco will publicly unveil the new Cisco Unified Access portfolio at Cisco Live London, taking place January 29 to February 1, 2013. During her keynote, Cisco Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior – along with Senior Vice President Rob Soderbery – will introduce the new Cisco Unified Access components and describe how strategic IT leaders can use market transitions such as BYOD, cloud, and information proliferation for business advantage.

Supporting Quotes

·         Rob Soderbery, senior vice president, Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco

“Customers want a simple, highly secure network with reduced TCO that allows them to address new access requirements such as BYOD and new innovative line of business applications. Cisco Unified Access allows customers to achieve these goals by moving away from individual vertical stacks of technology and disparate components toward a single architecture for an intelligent network.”

·         Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst, ZK Research

“In many ways, Cisco is redefining what Unified Access means. They’re not talking about just wired and wireless infrastructure, they’re talking about having a consistent set of features across all products. In many ways, Cisco is setting the bar much higher than the rest of the industry to-date.”

·         Gareth Bulpin, technical development network and support manager, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

“At the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, our ‘dream’ is to deliver a highly secure and sustainable network infrastructure that breaks down barriers and expands the horizons of our staff and patients. The successful partnership working between Cisco, Damovo UK and the Hospital Network Team delivered our ‘dream to reality’ in 58 days with Cisco Unified Access being the ‘game changer’ to deliver ‘healthcare without boundaries.’ Cisco Unified Access will enable us in the future to apply consistent wired and wireless policies at the access layer of our wired and wireless network which now supports our mobile workforce to leverage BYOD in a sustainable and secure fashion.”

·         Thomas Vogel, Abteilungsleiter Abt. Infrastruktur, Technische Universität Darmstadt

“Cisco Unified Access provides converged wired and wireless network with intelligence, performance, reliability and scalability that we need in a highly collaborative learning environment of our world-class academic environment.”

Supporting Resources

·         For more information on how Cisco is delivering on the wired wireless convergence, please visit: Cisco Unified Access, Cisco Prime, Borderless Networks and Cisco Wireless

• Read the Borderless Networks blog and Mobility blog
• Follow Cisco Enterprise and Cisco_Mobility on Twitter
• Cisco Identity Services Engine
• Cisco Prime Infrastructure
• Cisco’s view of the “Internet of Everything”
• Cisco BYOD solutions

Tags/keywords: Cisco, Unified Access, mobility, wireless, wired, switching, cloud, network, security, BYOD, IT, Borderless Networks, access point, Aironet, Catalyst, video, service provider, SP, switch, CleanAir, controller, Cisco Prime, Identity Services Engine, Mobility Services Engine, ISE, MSE, 802.11ac, Internet of Everything, ASIC, Unified Access Data Plane, Cisco 3850, Cisco 5760, Cisco Live London, Rob Soderbery, Padmasree Warrior, Zeus Kerravala

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