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).
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