Cisco Flex 7500 Series Cloud Controller

Well its landed and for flex connect read H-REAP on steroids, at least thats my take.

The 5508 controller can manage, with the latest code, upto 100 H-REAP groups with 25 access points per group. This new platform can deal with 500 sites and 50 upto 50 access points per group, 2000 access points and 20000 clients.

Licensing should be software upgradeable starting at 300 access points.

There is more information here

Cisco Prime Network Control System (NCS)

Well this appears to be a simply amazing product on many many fronts.

While there is still little detail available it simply pulls all your network management into a single platform.

With Cisco Prime NCS you can manage upto 15000 Aironet access points but also upto 5000 autonomous access points.

Most importantly it integrates the management of upto 5000 switches for monitoring and trouble shooting.

Additionally it also integrates with Ciscos MSE and ISE.

Simply phenomenal, I am obviously familiar with the WCS and as always with each new release of WCS there is improved usability and functionality and the NCS looks to pull a whole lot of things into a trully unified management platform.

I really can't wait to get my hands on this and see how much it can actually do in the switched infrastructure.

The hardest part of this will be simply understanding the scale of this behemoth, seeing what new features it includes for the WLAN over and above the WCS and the enhanced WLAN capabilities will be exciting and if it can do some good stuff in the LAN infrastructure too it will simply sell itself and also strengthen the sales arguement for Cisco Unified Networks.

You can get more info here

WOW 450Mbps from HP

HP have launched their new E-MSM460 and 466 along with their E-MSM430. They are probably the first key vendor to market with a 3x3:3 access point giving 450Mbps potential.

The E-MSM430 is only 2 spatial streams meaning 300Mbps but the E-MSM460 and 466 support 3 spatial streams. The E-MSM460 has integrated antennas while on the E-MSM466 you will need to buy the antennas seperatly.

This I am sure will be the first of many cmpeting products and with Intel providing the Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 wireless adapter with 3x3 support its only a matter of time before we start seeing major deployments at 450Mbps.

New Wireless Products From Cisco

Well its been a long wait but there are a few new products available now from Cisco within their wireless portfolio which will only make wireless networking more exciting in the future as its always a race to give the best performance and innovation in this fast paced arena.

OK there may be other similar products out there and some may argue that company A is better than company B but I do perceive Cisco as having the greatest breadth and depth in their offering.

Here is s snapshot of whats new

Cisco 2500 Series Wireless LAN Controller

Basically 4 flavours 5, 15, 25 and 50 accesspoint models
Software license upgrade for more access points in 5 and 25 access point increments
Support for Office Extend
Four 1Gbps Ethernet (RJ-45)

Cisco Wireless Services Module 2 Controller for Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

Supports 100, 300, and 500 access points with software licensing flexibility and all the usual features such as Office Extend etc

Cisco Wireless Controller on Cisco Services-Ready Engine

Very similar in features to the 2500 integrates int the ISR G2 routers, obviously without the Gig ports.

Cisco Aironet 600 Series OfficeExtend Access Points

This dual-band, 802.11n access point extends the corporate network to the home teleworker and mobile contractors. The access point connects to the home's broadband Internet access and establishes a secure tunnel to the corporate network so that remote employees can access data, voice, video, and cloud services for a mobility experience consistent with that at the corporate office.

Cisco Aironet 1550 Series Outdoor Access Point

The Cisco Aironet 1550 Series with Cisco CleanAir technology provides the highest-performance 802.11n connectivity for mission-critical outdoor networks by detecting interference from unauthorized devices, as well as common outdoor interference sources such as WiMAX networks and wireless bridging products.

I'm sure there will be other products around the corner as they continually develope their portfolio but its just as interesting to see where these fit against competitors and how the market all gels together.