Switches & Bridges

In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architecture is changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is the third generation of industry's leading Data Center Server-Access Nexus 5000 series of switches. Cisco Nexus 5600 is the successor of industry's most widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 series switches that maintain all the existing Nexus 5500 features including LAN/SAN convergence (Unified Ports, FCoE), Fabric Extenders (FEX) and Fabric Path, but in addition brings integrated line-rate Layer 2/3 with true 40GE support, Cisco's Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) innovation, NVGRE, VxLAN bridging & routing capability, network programmability & visibility, deep buffers and significantly higher scale & performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform switches include both 1RU and 2RU switches built to overcome these challenges with a flexible, agile and energy efficient design. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are energy-efficient switches that offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed, and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of front-to-back (port-side exhaust) and back-to-front (port-side intake) airflow options, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switch is designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform with Cisco® NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. Cisco NX-OS Software is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The increasing number of applications requiring greater bandwidth and the availability of less expensive 10-Gbps servers are fueling a growing demand for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches. At the same time, data center architecture is evolving in response to new demands on the IT infrastructure. Application workloads are being deployed across a mix of virtualized and physical server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform Gigabit Ethernet switches are the third generation of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches: the leading data center server access switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform, the successor to the widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 platform, maintains all the existing Cisco Nexus 5500 platform features, including LAN and SAN convergence (unified ports and Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE]), fabric extenders, and Cisco® FabricPath. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform offers integrated line-rate Layer 2 and 3 capabilities with true 40 Gigabit Ethernet support, Cisco's programmable fabric innovation, Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) bridging and routing capabilities, excellent network programmability and visibility, large buffer capacity, and significantly greater scale and performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 40-Gbps switches include 1-rack-unit (1RU), 2RU, and 4RU configurations for a flexible, agile, and energy-efficient design. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform complements existing Cisco Nexus switches and is an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture. The platform offers 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE with integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed. It also offers low latency: approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of port-side intake and fan-side intake airflow options to align with cold-aisle and hot-aisle placement within the data center, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 40-Gbps switches are designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform with the Cisco NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. NX-OS is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform delivers dense 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching that is well suited for cloud, big data, and virtualized environments.

In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architectures are changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform is the third generation of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches: the industry's leading data center server access switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches can be categorized into 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps switches. This data sheet focuses on the 10-Gbps switches only. Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are the successors to the industry's widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches. The switches maintain all the existing Cisco Nexus 5500 platform features, including LAN and SAN convergence (unified ports and Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE]), fabric extenders, and Cisco® FabricPath. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches bring integrated line-rate Layer 2 and 3 capabilities with true 40 Gigabit Ethernet support (on uplink and network-facing ports), Cisco programmable fabric innovations, Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) bridging and routing, network programmability and visibility, large buffer capacity, and significantly greater scalability and performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches include both 1-rack-unit (1RU) and 2RU switches built to meet the challenges of today's data centers with a flexible, agile, and energy-efficient design. These 10-Gbps switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. These energy-efficient switches offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE, providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of port-side intake and fan-side intake airflow options to align with cold-aisle and hot-aisle placement in the data center, the 10-Gbps switches are designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The 10-Gbps switches together with the Cisco NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. NX-OS is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus® 9200 platform is the latest addition to the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches. The Cisco Nexus 9200 platform consists of industry leading ultra-density fixed-configuration data center switches with line-rate Layer 2 and 3 features that support enterprise and commercial applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments. These switches support a wide range of port speeds with flexible combinations of 1/10/25/40/50/100-Gbps connectivity in compact form factors. Using the widely deployed industry-leading Cisco® NX-OS Software operating system, the Nexus 9200 switch is designed for the programmable fabric, which offers flexibility, mobility and scale for service providers and IaaS/cloud providers; and for the programmable network which automates configuration and management for customers who want to take advantage of the DevOps type of operation model and toolsets.

Organizations everywhere recognize that changing application environments are creating new demands for the IT infrastructure that supports them. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments:

• Application instances are created dynamically. As a result, the provisioning, modification, and removal of application network connectivity needs to be dynamic as well.

• Business units demand accelerated application deployments. IT departments have to provide shared IT infrastructure to address time-to-market needs and to increase their return on investment (ROI).

• With organizations deploying a mix of custom, open source, and off-the-shelf commercial applications, IT departments must manage both security and quality of service (QoS) for environments that support multitenancy.

• Applications have been transitioning over time to a less monolithic, scale-out, multinode model. IT infrastructure that supports this model must scale with the speed of business and support both 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

The Cisco Nexus® 9000 Series Switches include both modular and fixed-port switches that are designed to overcome these challenges with a flexible, agile, low-cost, application-centric infrastructure (ACI).

The Cisco Nexus 9300 platform consists of fixed-port switches designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments. The switches are Layer 2 and 3 nonblocking 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-capable switches with up to 2.56 terabits per second (Tbps) of internal bandwidth.