4/22/2008 -- At its Partner Summit 2008 earlier this month, Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled its Application eXtension Platform (AXP), a lineup of Linux-based ISR modules designed to run third-party applications. The idea, Cisco says, is that application developers can use its Application AXP SDK (and associated APIs) to build applications that run on Cisco's branch office routers.

Out of the gate, Cisco's AXP gambit looks like a winner. A bevy of ISVs -- including Avocent, InterComponentWare, NICE, OSIsoft, Precidia Technologies, ProSyst, Sagem-Interstar, Verint and Workbrain -- have all announced AXP applications. Analysts see it as a reactive move by Cisco in a market in which -- until now, anyway -- it hasn't been especially dominant.

"[O]pening its branch office routers to third-party applications will let the company position its networking gear as a more central component of its customers' communications software infrastructure," wrote Brian Riggs, research director for enterprise communications with consultancy Current Analysis. "Cisco has already started along this path by making its Survivable Remote Site Telephony, Communications Manager Express and other[s] of its own communications software available on its routers. Allowing third-party applications to be ported over as well promises to increase customers' options in how to deploy complex, multi-vendor communications solutions cost-effectively."

The move gives Cisco a much-needed leg-up vis-a-vis archrivals Juniper Networks and 3Com.

"[B]oth...[vendors] have introduced similar programs that let third-party applications run directly on their networking gear," Riggs said. "Cisco has delivered a considerable amount of detail in terms of the ISVs that are porting over their applications and the process by which they do so. This could help Cisco not only catch up to the competition, but also potentially exceed competitors' accomplishments in the delivery of router-based applications platforms that support third-party software."

The upshot, Riggs concluded, is that Cisco's "customers and resellers should be able to deploy third-party applications on Cisco branch office routers in very short order." He sees the move's most obvious benefit -- effectively retrofitting Cisco's ISR routers as platforms for communications applications -- as all upside, for Cisco and customers alike.

"This has the potential of reducing customers' capital expense and operations costs, since dedicated servers will no longer be required for applications like this," Riggs said. "The introduction of AXP is a direct response to 3Com, which more than a year ago launched its Open Service Networking program to accomplish precisely the same thing. It is also in response to Juniper Networks' December introduction of its Partner Solution Development Platform, which also proposes tighter integration with third-party application software residing on Juniper M and T-Series routers."

But AXP goes both bids one better, according to Riggs. "With AXP, Cisco will be in a position of trumping 3Com, whose OSN program has been in some regards rather slow to take off, and Juniper, whose PSDP program is much more focused on the company's core set of service provider customers," he said. --Stephen Swoyer