Supporting these initiatives, as well as enhanced security features of TrustSec, are new products. In the switching line, there are new switch products: the Catalyst 3750-X, 3760-X and 2960-S. In the routing line, the new platforms are the ISR G2 3900E, 887, 887V, 888E, and 1921 routers. The Catalyst 3750-X and 3760-X bring a wealth of new features (the difference between the two model is that the 3760-X is non-stackable). The new switches now feature an Integrated Mobility Services Engine similar to what is offered in Cisco's wireless controllers so that location can be discovered as devices move about the network. Using the same engine as the wireless controllers simplifies the management process. Location information is entered into the switch and provides better asset tracking. The 3750-X and 3760-X also support Medianet on the switch, with extra processing power for media management as well as the first switches to natively support 802.1ae (described in New Protocols Secure Layer 2), aka MACsec, which provides link level encryption, as well as the MACsec Key Agreement (MKA) defined in 802.1X-REV. This is an important move for Cisco since 802.1ae requires hardware support.
More importantly, the 3750-X switches can be stacked nine units high sharing a common data backplane. With the 3750-X, PoE and PoE+ power can be stacked up to four units high. Rather than using external power supplies, power supplies can be distributed across the stack and extra wattage can be delivered to any port in the stack regardless of the local power supply capacity. Power stacking makes cabling simpler because there is less need to manage individual switch power budgets. In addition, you get automatic power supply fail-over across the power stack. Should one power supply fail, the power budget can be picked up from the remaining switches. Obviously, you will need to play your power budget across the stack to take advantage of the additional resiliency. You could, in practicality, power an entire 3750-X stack with two 1100 watt power supplies in one switch, but Cisco recommends against doing so because of the heat build-up and the loss of resiliency across the stack.
In a move to beat HP at price, the new Catalyst 2960-S switches are stackable switches up to nine units high and offer a 20Gbps back plane. Power is not stacked. The new switches come with an Extended Limited Lifetime warranty which has a next-business-day replacement and 90 days of TAC support. HP Procurve limited lifetime warranty is still better with unlimited technical email support and is applied across more of the Procurve's switch line.
Finally, the new ISR 3900 E products extend the product line to new form factors and IOS-XE Release 2.6, which has adds high-availability in the kernel, as well as additional processing capabilities for muti-media. In addition, the 3900 support PoE and offers three times the network bandwidth over previous ISR models, according to the company.
Slowly but surely, Cisco is delivering on its big initiatives. The new product offerings are interesting, but we don't expect to see quick uptake. Replacing access switches is expensive simply due to the number of switches that have to be replaced, and frankly, the access layer doesn't change much. In addition, taking advantage of the new features like power management and Medianet require buying into the Cisco ecosystem--something a lot of enterprises are loathe to do due to fears of vendor lock-in. We'd like to see Cisco take the protocols and APIs they are developing to standards bodies first rather than developing proprietary methods and then, when or if they decide to do so, taking them to standards works, so that the industry can settle on a set of agreed upon standards. Granted, it might slow down product development, but is also opens the market to a wider audience.
