Cisco Delivers New Access Service Router Series to Recast the Network Edge

| Mar 4, 2008 | Carrier Infrastructure | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Glen Hunt

Current Perspective: Very Positive
Vendor Importance: Very High
Market Impact: Very High

Event Summary

March 4, 2008 – Cisco announced its next generation Aggregation Services Router 1000 Series, which is designed to take the service provider edge all the way into the Exabyte era. The new series is based on Cisco’s latest QuantumFlow processor and delivers high performance access and aggregation routing and switching plus embedded services such as firewall, DPI, IDS and others in the base system. The new compact platform is ideal of supporting managed services and eliminates separate appliances.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Very positive on Cisco’s announced launch of its new Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 1000 Series, which is designed to address the emerging Exabyte era in network traffic. With traffic growth projected to be at 42% CAGR through 2011 and service sophistication increasing, access routers need to deliver higher per subscriber performance and offer embedded services to reduce cost and complexity. The new Cisco platform delivers the performance needed in this environment for access and aggregation routing and switching, but it also includes embedded services such as firewall, IPsec, deep packet inspection (DPI), integrated service gateway (ISC) and session border vontroller (SBC) functions in the base platform, which eliminates the need to deploy separate network appliances of these functions.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to Cisco, because the launch of the new access and aggregation platform is Cisco’s solution to address the requirements for next generation edge routers and switches. The new platform is based on Cisco’s latest QuantumFlow processor, which delivers the performance and capacity to address the key drivers and requirements at the network edge. To provide the reliability and service capabilities required, the new platform runs the new IOS XE operating system, which brings service virtualization to the access router, which is the basis for its embedded services capabilities. Cisco has made significant investments in the new series which should enable it to establish a new model for edge routing.

• Market Impact: Very high on the carrier Ethernet access and aggregation market, because the new platform will introduce a new level of performance and integration that is needed to deliver applications such as video and Web 2.0 collaborative services, and promises to offer CapEx and OpEx reductions to enable service providers to create profitable services. The ASR 1000 Series is well suited to reduce or replace multiple devices with a single integrated compact unit, since all services are embedded. The new router also presents a minimized carbon footprint to improve power efficiency.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Alcatel-Lucent should highlight its success in delivering advanced residential and business services based on its innovative 7750/7710 Service Router, 7450 Ethernet Services Switch and 7250 Service Access Switch portfolio. It should also highlight its Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture, Mobile Evolution Transport Architecture, and broad management and control systems such as the 5650 Service Aware Manager, the 5750 Subscriber Service Controller, and the 5650 Control Plane Manager--which meet the service delivery and operational needs of Tier 1 operators.

• Ericsson should show how its fully owned Redback subsidiary delivers strong IP access, aggregation and multiservice edge functionality with the state-of-the-art SmartEdge series routers. It should highlight that it has a scalable solution based on the SmartEdge 1200, 800, 400 and 100 platforms which provide fully integrated functions to address a broad range of scale and functionality. It should also emphasize the fact that it has delivered integrated subscriber management and routing functionality for years.

• Juniper should highlight its extensive portfolio which includes the M-/MX-series to support application convergence, residential services such as IPTV and VoIP, FTTX build outs and is ready for the expected boom in 3G mobile rollouts. Juniper should also note recent innovation such as the Juniper Control System 1200, which delivers control plane scaling and cost efficiencies. Juniper should also highlight its leading SSG unified security solutions for enterprise and service providers.

• Nokia Siemens Networks should show how its collaborative approach delivers the best solution for its customers since it leverages its global professional services organization to integrate the best of its internally developed products and best-of-breed partner products to deliver highly optimized network solutions tailored to unique customer requirements.

• Huawei should highlight its ME60 Multi-Service Control Gateway (MSCG) series products which are characterized by its high capacity, high performance, service processing and integrated control capabilities. The ME60 is a key device for integrating pure Internet services plus applications such as voice, video, 3G and NGN services. Huawei should also note that the ME60 integrates the functions such as user management, service control, and security control, plus support for layer-2 and layer-3 VPN.

• Vendors of specialized network appliances should tout the unique and field proven capabilities of their platforms and the success they have had in integrating their solutions into existing multi-vendor router and switch based networks. These vendors should also show that they leverage industry-standard software interfaces which position them to continue to be significant participants for years to come. Appliance-based vendors should highlight their best-of-breed solutions and cast doubt on a multi-function box approach.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Service providers and enterprises seeking to deploy or offer managed services should consider the integrated capabilities of the 3-slot ASR 1000. The compact two RU system is ideal for customer located equipment which can deliver a complete range of secure services. The integrated firewall, IDS and SBC, for example, can offer services such as VoIP, video and Web 2.0 collaboration.

• Existing Cisco service provider customers should evaluate the ASR 1000 Series in conjunction with current devices being deployed in their networks. For those applications that require a smaller footprint but need advanced service support (i.e., SBC, ISG, etc.), the new platform could offer a more cost effective solution than the larger 7600 or a multi-box solution.

• Service providers should press Cisco to expand its “Service On” features to leverage network capabilities such as auto discovery and embedded services which can improve time-to-service and improve overall operational efficiency.

• Service providers should compare the value proposition put forth by the ASR 1000 Series with that of other vendor portfolios. Key factors that should be compared include price/performance, scale, footprint, integrated services, the number of platforms needed to meet the service requirements and the overall end-to-end manageability.

• Cisco partners and system integrators should press for open APIs and development tools to leverage the programmability of the QuantumFlow processor to develop the next wave of innovative service offerings. Since the new platform preserves much of the well-known IOS mechanisms (CLI and common look and feel), third party organizations should be able to contribute to future service capabilities.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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