Devoted to hardware, software, IT issues, and information technology management

Well, I'm on a roll this week with network hardware-related posts, I just put something up yesterday with Juniper Networks Enterprise Ethernet Switches and now Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) has just introduced the first in their line of next generation switches meant to support what they're calling Data Center 3.0 architecture.

The Nexus 7000 Series Switch was designed to meet the demands for next-generation mission-critical data centers as they transition to a more services-centric model.  The Nexus 7000 contains many software and hardware innovations including:

• Combined Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric
• Integrated identity- and role-based security with the Cisco Trusted Security (TrustSec) architecture
• An advanced operating system, the Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS), and the Cisco Data Center Network Manager

The Nexus 7000 scales beyond 15 terabits per second, with future availability of 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet and unified fabric I/O modules. The switch is designed for exceptional scalability, continuous systems operation, and transport flexibility.

I could provide a dry rundown of the switch capabilities, but Paul Mah at TechRepublic has already pulled a great excerpt from MarketWatch:

"Cisco says that the new data-center switch would be able to copy all the searchable data on the Internet in 7.5 minutes, download Wikipedia’s database in 10 milliseconds or download 90,000 Netflix movies in less than 40 seconds.  It also can run 5 million concurrent transcontinental videoconferences using the company’s Telepresence Collaboration systems, a company spokeswoman said."

The Nexus 7000 is expected to be generally available in the 2nd quarter of this year and the price starts at $75,000.  This may sound steep, but with the potential to consolidate and virtualize existing network and storage fabrics, it might just be worth every penny.