Cisco Unveils Intelligent Information Network

Cisco Systems, Inc. (www.cisco.com) announced Cisco® Application-Oriented Networking (AON), new technology that adds intelligence to the network, enabling the network to better understand business-application communications to support more effective and efficient business decisions.

Cisco's approach to AON is based on innovative new technology that moves beyond the packet level to read application-to-application messages flowing within the network - such as purchase orders, investment transactions, or shipment approvals.

With AON, the network now speaks the language of applications. This new technology supports Cisco's vision for the Intelligent Information Network and is the first network-embedded intelligent message routing system that integrates application message-level communication, visibility, and security into the fabric of the network.

"The nature of the enterprise network is evolving from a low-function communication service to a high-function Enterprise Nervous System (ENS). This is changing application design and IT management practices in fundamental ways." Roy Schulte, Gartner, Inc. Vice President and Research Fellow.

Enterprise IT executives today are challenged with how to better secure, integrate, and optimize business applications to improve productivity and competitiveness.

Because it takes advantage of the existing network footprint, and requires no changes to existing applications, Cisco AON technology also provides excellent investment protection.

The new family of Cisco AON products enables business applications and the network to work together as an integrated system. Announced today are Cisco AON modules for data center switches and for branch office routers.

"We have been integrating closely with the Cisco AON solution to monitor and report on the transport and delivery of Financial Information Exchange (FIX) messages, a financial services industry standard protocol used by Radianz' customers for exchanging equity orders," says Brennan Carley, CTO at BT Radianz.

To accelerate successful Cisco AON deployments, Cisco and its technology partners will provide a lifecycle portfolio of professional services that align customers' business and technical requirements through all six phases of the deployment lifecycle: prepare, plan, design, implement, operate and optimize, specifically designed for this new solution.

"Two industry-leading companies, IBM and Cisco, are working together to help customers to become more flexible, to use their IT infrastructure in support of their business goals, helping them to become On-Demand businesses," said Robert LeBlanc, general manager, WebSphere, IBM Software Group.

"As one of our key partners supporting the Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA), Cisco is working with SAP to integrate ESA with Application-Oriented Networking to deliver end-to-end solutions for enterprise data centers, branch offices, and small and midsize businesses," said George Paolini, executive vice president, Platform Ecosystem Development at SAP.

In addition, Cisco is collaborating with EDS, SAIC, TIBCO Software, and Verisign, as well as innovative services and software firms, including: Actional, ConnecTerra, Contivo, CXO Systems, Infogain, ManTech, Trace Financial, and TransactTools to provide a broad range of Cisco AON solutions.