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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Phoenix who wrote (13036)	3/23/1998 2:52:00 PM
From: Jim Lamb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

CSCO #3 Business week 50 businessweek.com

To: The Phoenix who wrote (13036)	3/23/1998 8:55:00 PM
From: Diwaana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Thread: March 23, 1998, TechWeb News Cisco Drives Multimedia -- New products extend strategy for moving data, voice, and video over single networks By Monua Janah with Mary E. Thyfault Cisco Systems Inc. will unveil a series of products this week as part of its strategy to integrate voice, video, and data services over a single network. The products, sources say, include a "multiservice" router series, the 2600 line, in addition to its 2500 Internet Protocol routers. A multiservice router can route voice, video, and data packets over an IP network, potentially enabling customers to start phasing out leased lines for voice traffic. The 2600 series, a midrange line, will complement Cisco's existing low-end 1600 line and its high-end 3600 line. In addition, sources say, Cisco will introduce cards to provide voice support for its products, as well as management software to simplify the configuration and maintenance of those voice-support features. For enterprise customers, the technical and financial obstacles to implementing integrated networks remain formidable, analysts say. But Cisco and its major competitors are developing products to make such networks more viable. In fact, about half of Cisco's acquisitions this year will be related to the convergence of voice, video, and data, CEO John Chambers said in a recent interview. Cisco declined to comment on its forthcoming product announcement. At the forefront of the media integration trend is Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which is testing Cisco's 3640 router and MC3810 remote-access concentrator. "We have a significant ATM wide area network in this state, called Network Virginia, and we want to take advantage of that to run voice traffic," says Carl Harris, communications systems lead engineer at the Blacksburg, Va., university. "We want to reduce costs by cutting down on our leased lines." Virginia Polytechnic is deploying the 3810s in its remote sites, and connecting them to the ATM network and to its campus PBXs. The 3640 devices are being tested for voice-over-IP on the LAN. "We have a large number of phone handsets and a huge cable infrastructure," Harris says. "We'd like to eventually do it all on a single jack." This week's introduction is the third installment of Cisco's data-voice-video integration strategy, launched in October with voice modules for the 3600s and circuit emulation for its 5500 LAN switches. In December, Cisco introduced the 3800 line, multiservice devices for aggregating remote-access links. The San Jose, Calif., vendor also plans to scale its 3600 routers to support telephony and other voice applications over IP networks. The next two phases will include voice support for its LAN products and network-management software for integrated services. Separately, Cisco will call its Gigabit Ethernet switch the 8500, and will ship it at the end of April. Copyright (c) 1998 CMP Media Inc.