Linux

Cisco’s ISR G2 and Borderless Networking: Service layer implications?

Cisco has announced a new generation of its popular ISR platform (G2, fittingly), and also announced an initiative/architecture called Borderless Networking. The ISR upgrades are performance enhancements to the earlier models based on what Cisco calls the “Service-Ready Engine” that can support Linux applications directly, not through the older AXP insert card.

Borderless Networking is harder to pin down, however. It appears to be what a Cisco PR video calls a “recommitment” of Cisco to some core technologies rather than a new announcement. But it is possible that Cisco will offer something new and substantive there. From the positioning, it appears to be a service-layer strategy focused on creating an “IT control plane” from Cisco’s data center and virtualization technology. Whether it’s real or slideware is the question.

Cisco often makes announcements like this to anticipate announcements by competitors, and a number of them may be planning something in the service layer area within the next month. As we’ve noted, this is a critical area, and if Cisco can create a credible “IT control plane” based on data center virtualization, it could have an impact in the space. Recent trends within Cisco management and organization, however, seem to suggest a de-emphasis on software products and on network abstraction and management, key ingredients in a service-layer strategy.

Intel’s Nehalem chip and the Sun/IBM dynamic

Sun’s relationship with Intel on the new generation of processors may bear fruit with Solaris support for the Intel “Nehalem” chip family. In fact, Solaris may have the first and best support for the new processor.

Sun is hoping that better support for the new multi-core chips with special power management capability will give it an edge in the server space, but of course the question of an IBM Sun acquisition still hangs over the vendor. So does the fact that the Intel chip competes with Sun’s own Sparc line.

Users aren’t concerned about the IBM deal; they feel that Sun under IBM would be an even stronger partner. The Intel Nehalem affinity for Solaris and an IBM Sun acquisition might put Linux under more pressure. IBM has been a Linux backer but might be less active should it have its own open-source UNIX-compatible OS.

The Nehalem chip is one of the most advanced and fastest available, outperforming (says Intel) both IBM and Sun/Sparc by a large margin and providing unparalleled power management, I/O handling, and virtualization support. The new chip (Xeon 5500 is the current instantiation) is already launching a major flush of new servers from IBM, Dell, and HP.