Cisco Systems Unveils Complete IP VPN Solution for Service Providers; Network-Based IPsec VPN Solution Offers Industry's Best Scalability and Performance

Business Wire, Oct 9, 2000

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2000

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced a complete network-based IPsec VPN solution. Based on the new Cisco VPN 5000 concentrator and client, and available today, the new Virtual Private Network (VPN) platform securely connects remote users and branches to their corporate networks and business partners across the Internet. Cisco's new VPN 5000 solution brings service providers a new revenue generating opportunity by allowing them to offer their customers a single, secure solution for both remote access and Intranet and Extranet VPNs from a variety of client platforms.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) delivers secure connectivity over a public infrastructure. With an increasing number of businesses using the public Internet as part of their network infrastructure, IP VPNs have become an important alternative to leased lines and modem access. According to the Yankee Group, IP-based VPNs will be used by 70 percent of all companies for up to 90 percent of their data communications needs by 2003.

"In the New World, companies are achieving dramatic reductions in operating costs by utilizing network-based VPN solutions," said John Goodhue, vice president of Cisco's Aggregation Business Unit. "By outsourcing VPN services, enterprises can focus on their core competencies while leaving the issues of installation, security, management to the service provider. For the service provider, the new Cisco VPN 5000 series offers unparalleled security and increased revenue-generating opportunities."

Cisco VPN 5000 Series

The Cisco VPN 5000 series includes three separate offerings to meet the needs of a broad range of service providers and customers. The 5001 has been specifically designed for deployment on the customer's premise. The carrier-class 5002 and 5008 are modular platforms enabling service providers to scale their VPN offerings and provide a full range of global connectivity options.

The 5002 and 5008 are the first IPsec VPN solutions designed specifically for network-based IP VPN deployments. When placed at the edge of a service providers' network, the Cisco VPN 5002 and 5008 concentrators allow for both remote access and site-to-site access -- saving significant time and money in implementing and managing the network.

"A new trend in network-based VPNs is emerging," said Ron Westfall, senior analyst at Current Analysis. "With service providers offering VPN services based on the Cisco VPN 5000 series, enterprise customers can now turn more confidently toward outsourcing their WAN requirements."

VPN Service Expansion and Flexibility

The Cisco VPN 5002 and 5008 modular platforms support differentiated VPN services, such as the ability to leverage hundreds of customers on a single platform. Up to 256 Customer Virtual Contexts (CVCs) can be created per platform, each providing separate IGP routing, RADIUS authentication and accounting servers, VPN Groups, filter sets and tunnel mappings. The VPN 5000 series also offers service providers with the broadest tunnel mapping features available today -- including IPsec, L2TP LNS, 802.1Q VLANs, Frame Relay PVCs and GRE. Since each CVC has its own virtual router, numerous customers can seamlessly use the same overlapping IP ranges, including private (RFC 1918) addresses.

Industry Leading Performance and Scalability

The Cisco VPN series incorporates hardware acceleration and advanced architecture to offer the industry's top performance and scalability features. The modular 5000 series models (5002 and 5008) are available in two-slot (5002) and eight-slot (5008) versions; the 5008 can scale up to 40,000 simultaneous remote access or site-to-site VPN tunnels, with 760 Mbps 3DES throughput. Scalability and high performance are critical to the successful support of large broadband deployments.

Unmatched Flexibility and Ease of Use

A combination of features unique to the Cisco VPN 5000 series offers service providers unmatched flexibility and ease of use. With the broadest client platform support in the industry, the Cisco VPN 5000 series allows service providers to offer their customers a wide range of accessibility, enabling connections from almost any workstation operating system. A license to brand and distribute IPsec VPN Client software is included with all VPN 5000 products at no cost. In addition, the Cisco VPN 5000 series is the only client-based VPN solution available today, supporting Windows 95/98/NT/2000, MacOS, Linux and Solaris -- allowing service providers to increase revenue by supporting a broader range of enterprise customers.

The Cisco VPN 5000 series also includes a simple user interface which "pushes" security policy and access control to the VPN client automatically -- eliminating the need for service providers to pre-configure each VPN client or for end-users to establish their own settings. With a thin client, the Cisco VPN 5000 series is the only VPN client in the industry that is easy for end-users to download and install with minimal risk of configuration errors.