Virtualization News Desk
BT Select Cisco Virtualization Based Routers for Next-Generation Managed Services
BT Global Services Has Been Involved in Testing the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers Prior to the Product's Launch
Jul. 21, 2008 12:00 PM
Cisco announced
that BT Global Services intends to deploy the new Cisco ASR1000 Series
Aggregation Services Routers. BT Global Services has been involved in testing
the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers prior to the product's launch in March this
year.
"One
of our key challenges is to quickly roll out new services with the same time
managing the operational complexity of delivering those services," said
David Stark, vice president, CPE and Converged Services, BT Global Services.
"Unlike
past generation routers, which are dependant on specific service blades, the
Cisco ASR 1000 supports multiple services such as high-speed firewall, security
and flexible packet matching on the platform in hardware. There is no need for
engineering site visits to install service blades and services can be turned on
instantly with minimal network downtime," Stark added.
The Cisco
ASR 1000 Series Routers are driven by the new Cisco QuantumFlow Processor
(QFP), the industry's first fully-integrated and programmable processing
engine. The ASR 1000 Series features software virtualization to enable
'instant-on' provisioning and the simultaneous use of a wide range of service
functionality, including firewall, IP security virtual private networks (IPsec
VPNs),deep-packet inspection (DPI) and Session Border Control (SBC). Such broad-ranging
embedded capabilities eliminate the need to deploy multiple single-function
appliances in addition to a router, offering dramatic savings in capital costs
and operations expenses and a reduction in users' carbon footprints.
Such
capabilities also allow BT Global Services to more quickly respond to their customers
changing needs, as new services can be activated remotely instead of requiring
a truck roll and service call.
"The
Cisco ASR1000 Series offers the quality of service and high-availability
functions needed for us to provide service quality guarantees to our
customers," said Stark. "BT Global Services has been engaged in ASR
testing early in the product lifecycle, and we are satisfied with the test
results so far and by the potential of the ASR1000 for delivering
next-generation services. We look forward to deploying the ASR1000 range of
routers in our major finance and enterprise markets for critical managed
service applications such as highly secure encryption and VPN, as well as Cisco
TelePresence. We believe this represents an opportunity for BT Global Services to
deliver features and functionality to our customers in an efficient and cost
effective manner."
"We
believe that BT Global Services' world-class management capabilities, combined
with the price-performance and power efficiency offered by the ASR 1000 Series
make an attractive proposition," said Stefan Dyckerhoff, vice president
and general manager of the Cisco Aggregation Routing business unit. "Enterprise and financial
customers of BT Global Services can look forward to a range of new services
that will help them meet the challenges of a rapidly-changing and environmentally-aware
world."
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