Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch Family

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 28, 2008 - Cisco® announced today an innovative family of data center-class switching platforms, the Cisco Nexus Series, to meet customer demands for next-generation mission-critical data centers. As the data center transitions to a more services-centric model, the network plays a pivotal role in orchestrating virtual IT resources and scaling workloads. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series was designed with this environment in mind, delivering the infrastructure chapter of Cisco's Data Center 3.0 vision.

Today's announcement features a new data center platform with both hardware and software innovations, including:

• The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, the flagship data center-class switching platform combining Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric
• The Cisco Trusted Security (TrustSec) architecture
• An advanced operating system, the Cisco Nexus Operating System (Cisco NX-OS), and the Cisco Data Center Network Manager

Introducing the Nexus 7000 Series: Purpose Built for Data Centers

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is the flagship member of the Cisco Nexus Family, the first in a new data center class of switching products. The Nexus 7000 is a highly scalable modular platform that delivers up to 15 terabits per second of switching capacity in a single chassis, supporting up to 512 10-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) Ethernet and future delivery of 40- and 100-Gbps Ethernet. Its unified fabric architecture combines Ethernet and storage capabilities into a single platform, designed to provide all servers with access to all network and storage resources. This enables data center consolidation and virtualization. Key components of the unified fabric architecture include unified I/O interfaces and Fibre Channel over Ethernet support to be delivered in the future.

The Nexus 7000 is designed specifically for the data center with improved airflow, integrated cable management, and a resilient platform architecture. The data plane is fully distributed and, when coupled with the Cisco NX-OS operating system, is designed to enable zero service-disruption upgrades on production systems. This provides a seamless systems design that reduces administrative tasks and simplifies complex systems operations.

More information:

• Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches
• Data Center 3.0 and Cisco Nexus 7000
• Cisco Unveils Nexus 7000 Series Data Center-Class Platform
• Cisco Introduces New Switching Foundation for Data Center 3.0 Transformation