Cisco launches new Borderless Access products

Cisco has extended its Borderless Networks vision

Cisco today announced the release of Cisco Borderless Access (CBA), part of the company's Borderless Networks architecture designed to offer a complete overhaul of its fixed-switching portfolio of products and provide improved business flexibility.

The company said the new products under the CBA banner would enable firms to benefit from seamless and secure wired-to-wireless communications, business-wide energy management, and optimised delivery of video applications.

Maurizio Taffone, Borderless Networks technical product marketing lead for Europe, explained that for most enterprises networks now form a key part of their tech strategy.

"As workforces become more mobile and technologies such as video become more widespread in use, it is important that their systems are able to handle the growing amount of traffic," he said.

Taffone also noted that the new products were designed to offer seamless integration between wired and wireless communications, something for which the company has seen demand grow rapidly.

"Since the ratification of the 802.11n wireless standard, many firms now want to be able to host video or run applications between both wired and wireless networks without any trade-off in quality or performance," he said.

As part of the new architecture offering Cisco updated its Catalyst 3560/3750-X Series with a product called StackPower that offers power resiliency to a stack of Catalyst 3750-X Series switches, which it claims is an industry first.

The company has also launched the 2960-S Series of fixed-switching products that it said delivers FlexStack stacking for increased availability and performance as well as full Power over Ethernet on every port.

Taffone added that many CIOs are now very concerned with the energy output of networking tools.

"Energy management to reduce CO2 emissions is a key concern now and this new suite of products can help reduce outputs by as much as 70 per cent by stacking the switches to only power the necessary end-point equipment," he said.

Cisco also announced that it has tripled the performance of its ISR G2 router line and extended the delivery of high-performance video applications, service integration and cost savings to remote businesses with its G2 3900 E-Series routers.

Finally, it announced the release of a new router in its ASR 1000 Series Aggregation product range to offer improved security, management capabilities and platform reliability.