Cisco Systems has unveiled an IP services blade aimed at companies with distributed branch offices using IP connectivity and routing provided by Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs).

The system is being offered in partnership with core network services vendor Infoblox, and customers would already need to be using physical Infoblox hardware in the central office to manage these bladed virtual instances of lower-end Infoblox appliances.

While some believe that the current financial turbulence might deter many companies from putting this at the top of their wish list, Infoblox marketing vice president Richard Kagan is confident of its appeal.

"Providing dynamic central management of infrastructure and IP addresses eliminates manual labour, further lowering costs and improving availability," he said.

The Cisco ISR blade would need to be running a virtual copy of Infoblox's Network Services appliance, which Kagan said would provide firms with resiliency, management automation and flexibility for core network services, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name Services (DNS).

Deploying the Infoblox virtual appliance on a Cisco ISR blade would "help firms conserve significant costs by being able to consolidate branch office servers used to provide DNS and DHCP services", said Kagan, adding that there were over four million ISRs currently deployed worldwide.

Kagan also emphasised that companies rolling out services such as IP telephony, which require IP addresses and configuration files at startup, would need much more reliable and dynamic IP service provision.

The Infoblox virtual software module is available now in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the Cisco Network Module Enhanced 302 priced at $1,195 (£800).