10/19/2010 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week unveiled a major refresh to its Borderless Network architecture, touting a beefier, denser switching entry as well as enhancements to its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Aggregation Services Router (ASR) lines.

Cisco likewise reemphasized the extent to which its Borderless Network vision recasts both the role and the positioning of the enterprise firewall.

The ugly truth, Cisco officials say, is that the traditional role of the firewall is outmoded. "The problem is that with the advent of cloud computing, virtualization and the ability to gain anytime/anywhere access to data from a wide range of devices, it's hard to tell where the network begins and where it ends these days.  And if we can't find the network edge, where do we place the firewall?" wrote Rajneesh Chopra, manager for product marketing with Cisco, in a blog post.

The more apposite question, Chopra continued, concerns where a firewall shouldn't be placed. "[I]f the firewall is intended to provide the first and strongest defense in a layered defense strategy, stopping threats before they have an opportunity to touch the network, then we need to place the firewall anywhere the network exists," he argued.

That's the raison d'etre of Borderless Networks. With last week's deliverables, Cisco continues to flesh it out.

On the switching front, Cisco announced its Catalyst 4500 E-Series switch, which ships with a complement of 384 Power-over-Ethernet Plus (PoEP) ports and boasts a system bandwidth of up to 848 gigabits per second (Gbps). Cisco likewise announced the new Supervisor Engine 7-E, which it says is designed to economically facilitate the transition from 1G to 10G Fiber.

Cisco bills the new 2U ASA 5585-X as a slimmer, more scalable security appliance: it supports 20 Gbps of multiprotocol and 35Gbps of large-packet throughput; in addition, it manages up to 10,000 VPN connections per second (and as many as 8 million total connections) – while squeezing into two rack units of space.

Cisco also introduced its ASR 1001 router, which it says can deliver 5 Gbps throughput (with services enabled), which makes it suitable for enterprise branch, WAN edge, or managed services environments.

"IT managers want to use the network to support the needs of the business. But the business is changing, and IT managers are under increasing pressure to make the network available to anyone, anywhere, anytime and on any device—in a highly secure, reliable, seamless manner. This is precisely the challenge that the Cisco Borderless Network was designed to address," said Brett Galloway, senior vice president, Wireless, Security & Routing Technology Group, Cisco, in a prepared release. "This third expansion of the Borderless Networks portfolio is designed to help customers reach new levels of innovation and participation by engaging their customers and employees to create entirely new ways of doing business."
--By Stephen Swoyer