As organizations accelerate cloud adoption and process more applications at the network edge, IT teams face increased complexity and reduced control and visibility over applications across their networks. Cisco's new Catalyst 8000 Edge solutions transform the WAN edge, helping customers deliver automated and secure connectivity to applications across the cloud, data center, and network edge.
“With the proliferation of applications, workloads, and services increasingly distributed across the cloud and the network edge, organizations face new WAN challenges,” says JL Valente, Vice President of Product Management in Cisco’s Intent-Based Networking division. “When building secure multicloud access architectures, IT departments need the agility to respond quickly to business needs. Cisco’s Catalyst 8000 Edge platforms bridge the gap between the WAN edge and the cloud edge, providing secure, high-performance connectivity for users to any cloud, while also delivering greater IT visibility and business agility.”.
The new solutions allow customers to adopt the cloud at their own pace. For those looking to adopt a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture, Cisco SD-WAN converges cloud-managed SD-WAN and cloud security into a single solution. For customers requiring an on-premises solution, it offers comprehensive SD-WAN security.
There are three models available in the Catalyst 8000 family:
• As a high-performance SD-WAN solution, the Catalyst 8500 Series Edge platform is ideal for data centers, colocation, and aggregation. Featuring the industry's first integrated 40G and 100G Ethernet ports in a compact, single-rack-unit form factor and the power of Cisco's third-generation Quantum Flow processor (dedicated ASIC), it delivers high performance, built-in security, and optimized network services.
The Catalyst 8300 Series Edge models are designed to manage edge connectivity in branch offices, offering modular access with diverse connectivity options so organizations can deliver on-demand services. They also provide customers with SD-WAN service performance up to four times better than current Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs).
The Catalyst 8000V Edge Software platform offers all these capabilities through software. It can be deployed in the cloud or virtualized on a platform such as the Cisco 5000 Series Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS).
Wireless connectivity over cellular networks is becoming critical in modern WANs.
The Cisco Catalyst Cellular Gateway enables wireless WAN deployment on existing infrastructure without modifications. It transforms cellular connectivity into a primary SD-WAN link option with Gigabit connectivity for any cloud or location. The initial offering supports Advanced 4G LTE CAT 18 speeds, with 5G versions coming soon.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8500 models and Cisco Cellular Catalyst Gateway are now available, with the Cisco Catalyst 8000V expected to be available in December 2020.
