Cisco reinforces edge networking family with expanded SD-WAN, protection options. Cisco adds four cases to its Catalyst 8000 Edge family and extends the ISR/ASR customers’ grade path. This week, Cisco raised its Catalyst 8000 Edge Platform family to offer enterprise edge customers more secure SD-WAN and cloud resource access options.
The Cisco Catalyst 8000 edge router models currently encompass three models: the high-end 8500 for data-centre or colocation consumers, the 8300 for branch users, and the software-based 8000 for pragmatic environments.
Innovation support combines advanced routing, SD-WAN, security and secure-access service edge (SASE), depending on customer reservations, and all designs run Cisco’s IOS XE operating system software.
The extended 8000 family chooses Cisco’s Catalyst contribution from the category to the campus and data centre, including wireless and industrial cases, all with several standard features such as assistance for Cisco’s intent-based networking technology, analytics and security.
Among the four new models is a low-end box – the Cisco Catalyst 8500L – aimed at entry-level 1G/10G aggregation use cases, Cisco stated. The 1RU form factor 8500L is powered by 12 x86 cores and features up to 64GB memory to maintain secure connectivity for thousands of distant sites and millions of stateful NAT and firewall concourse.
Businesses find that establishing aggregation sites at either core locations or colocations helps them own the first mile on their part and remote-worker connectivity to the internet and other software-defined cloud interconnects.
The Catalyst 8500L provides ultra-fast IPsec crypto performance and advanced flow-based forwarding to keep up with the demands of today’s high-speed, secure connectivity.
Targeting the category, Cisco added the Catalyst 8200, which helps eight CPU cores for high-performance packet forwarding and 8GB of default RAM to run the most advanced protection services, Khetan stated. The Catalyst 8200 Series supports up to 1Gbps of aggregate forwarding throughput, which is doubled the enforcement of its ISR 4300 forerunner, according to Khetan.
The Catalyst 8200 Series Edge Platforms possess a wide assortment of interface options to choose from, with retrograde compatibility to existing WAN, LAN and voice modules. Besides, the devices support zero-touch IT capability while migrating workloads to the cloud, Khetan stated.
When Cisco interjected the 8000 families in October, the vendor said the family also serves as an ascent path for certain Cisco Integrated Services Router/Aggregation Services Router (ISR/ASR) enthusiasts. For example, the 8000 is an enhancement to the ISR 4400/4300, and the 8500 is an upgrade path for ASR 1001-HX/1002-HX, the company said.
The 8500 and 8200 family members maintain that migration effort. For example, Cisco says the Cisco Catalyst 8500L is an ascent from the Cisco ASR1x and ASR2x, and the Cisco Catalyst 8200 is an ascent for the Cisco ISR 4300 and ISR 2900.
Another development of Cisco’s branch contributions is the 1RU Catalyst 8200 Series Edge uCPE, which is pointed at what Cisco calls the small and lean virtualized branch. The device includes:
- Cisco’s hypervisor.
- Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software (NFVIS).
- Routing Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).
- Multiple orchestration options.
With eight x86 CPU cores with hardware acceleration for IPsec crypto traffic, the Catalyst 8200 uCPE lets departments run multiple VNFs and support up to 500Mbps IPsec SD-WAN throughput, Cisco stated.
“Along with a higher number of WAN ports, the platform includes one Network Interface Module (NIM) slot for supplementary WAN and LAN modules. A Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot for wireless WAN modules for LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro abilities,” Cisco stated.
Lastly, it added a 5G device that appears cellular connectivity options for the Catalyst family. The Catalyst Cellular Gateway offers sub 6Ghz 5G connectivity to wireless WAN and wireless SD-WAN links. Catalyst Cellular Gateways are manageable to set up and plugged into a router or edge platform via Power over Ethernet (PoE), Khetan stated.
The cellular gateway can be placed wherever cellular reception is most substantial, making installation much more convenient and reliable than traditional coaxial cable antenna extensions, Cisco stated. “The ability to ascertain new applications, either cloud-hosted or on-premises and to connect more devices presumably and flexibly, can make it easier to immigrate to a wireless WAN with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS),” Cisco stated.
Software capabilities for the 8000 families come in a tiered licensing model that includes:
- DNA Essentials: Includes core SD-WAN capabilities such as circuit load balancing, centralized management and orchestration, and traffic path steering. It blends routing capabilities (NAT, BGP, DNS, etc.) and base security capabilities (MACsec, ACLs, Snort IPS, Enterprise Firewall, etc.).
- DNA Advantage: Subscribers receive everything in Cisco DNA Essentials plus more advanced routing capabilities (MPLS BGP Support, IGMPv3, etc.), more advanced security functionality (Advanced Malware Protection, SSL proxy, etc.), expanded SD-WAN capabilities, analytics, plus access to Cisco’s Cloud OnRamp for SaaS, for IaaS, and Colocation.
- DNA Premier subscription offers Cisco’s complete SASE portfolio with a single license. The integration of Cisco Umbrella SIG Essentials into Cisco DNA Premier lets customers centrally manage security for all remote and branch locations and implement cloud security across the Cisco SD-WAN fabric.