4/25/2005 -- Ever since Cisco Systems Inc. announced its next-generation Carrier Routing System 1 (CRS-1) last year, industry watchers, customers and competitors have been waiting for the networking giant to bring the features of CRS-1’s next-gen IOS XR operating environment down from the mountain, so to speak, and implement them across its current-gen product stack.

As of last week, the wait is over. That’s because Cisco announced its Cisco XR 12000 Series routers, which bring carrier-class IOS features—like infrastructure security, continuous operation and multi-service scaling—to the venerable 12000 Series. The upshot, analysts say, is a shot in the arm for Cisco’s ailing edge strategy. “This gives Cisco’s edge strategy a boost with the features necessary in order to support triple play and other demanding edge applications,” says Glen Hunt, a senior analyst with consultancy Current Analysis.

Of course, it’s not as if Cisco’s 12000 Series routers are under-represented in carrier-class accounts. Instead, Hunt says, the issue was a lack of carrier-class features, at least relative to some competitive offerings. “The 12000 Series ... lacked the high availability features that service providers deploying next generation networks are demanding,” he notes.

In this respect, Hunt says, Cisco’s IOS XR infusion brings the 12000 Series up to speed with competitive offerings—and how. “[T]he features Cisco has delivered with the XR 12000 address significant weaknesses of current 12000 series routers, mainly features that help achieve 99.999 percent availability in networks that run on the platform,” he says.

To a large extent, Cisco’s 12000 Series refresh should blunt a marketing line-of-attack increasingly favored by its competitors, too. “The move also mutes at least two competitor claims: that Cisco has abandoned its existing customers by not investing in the 12000 series; and that its highly touted IOS XR is many quarters away for being ready for deployment,” Hunt points out, adding that Cisco’s announcement of several prominent customer test pilots—with Bell South, KDDI, DFN, NYSERNet and Cernet—should help, too.

Upgrade prices for the 12000 Series routers start at $12,500. -Stephen Swoyer