Cisco bolsters edge networking family with expanded SD-WAN, security options
Tech giant adds four boxes to Catalyst 8000 Edge family and expands upgrade path for ISR/ASR customers Credit: Dreamstime
Cisco has expanded its Catalyst 8000 Edge Platform family to offer enterprise edge customers more secure SD-WAN and cloud resource access options.
The Cisco Catalyst 8000 edge router collection currently includes three models: the high-end 8500 for data-centre or colocation customers, the 8300 for branch users, and the software-based 8000 for virtual environments. Feature support includes advanced routing, SD-WAN, security and secure-access service edge (SASE), depending on customer requirements, and all models run Cisco s IOS XE operating system software.
Among the four new models is a low-end box – the Cisco Catalyst 8500L – that s aimed at entry-level 1G/10G aggregation use cases, Cisco stated. The 1RU form factor 8500L is powered by 12 x86 cores and features up to 64GB memory to support secure connectivity for thousands of remote sites and millions of stateful NAT and firewall sessions, wrote Archana Khetan, senior director of product management for Enterprise Routing and SD-WAN Infrastructure at Cisco, in a blog about the new boxes.
Businesses find that establishing aggregation sites at either core locations or colocations helps them own the first mile on their branch and remote-worker connectivity to the internet and other software-defined cloud interconnects, Khetan stated.