Cisco 2015 Annual Report Download - page 11

We believe the promise of SDN is to enable more open and programmable network infrastructure. We are addressing this
opportunity with a unique strategy and set of solutions that is designed to address the application demands transition and offers a
holistic approach to the future of networking that responds automatically to the needs of applications. We introduced and began
shipping our Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), which delivers centralized application-driven policy automation,
management, and visibility of both physical and virtual environments as a single system. ACI is comprised of our Nexus 9000
portfolio of switches, enhanced versions of our NX-OS operating system, and the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller
(APIC), which provides a central place to configure, automate, and manage an entire network, based on the needs of applications.
Cloud Our cloud strategy is to connect private and public clouds working across hypervisors (software programs used to create
and manage virtual environments), and utilizing OpenStack (an open source computing platform), to deliver integrated hybrid-
cloud solutions. We believe clouds need to be secure and support a rich ecosystem of network-enabled applications to deliver the
data and analytics that support the digitization of our customers’ environments. As part of our cloud strategy, we are delivering
infrastructure, our Intercloud Fabric software, and our cloud services including WebEx and Meraki, among other applications.
We believe that customers and partners view our approach to the cloud as differentiated and unique, recognizing that we offer a
solution to different cloud environments including federated, private, hybrid, and public clouds that enables them to move their
cloud workloads across heterogeneous private and public clouds with the necessary policy, security, and management features.
For a discussion of the risks associated with our strategy, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We
depend upon the development of new products and enhancements to existing products, and if we fail to predict and respond to
emerging technological trends and customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.” For
information regarding sales of our major products and services, see Note 17 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Products and Services
Our current offerings fall into several categories:
Switching
Switching is an integral networking technology used in campuses, branch offices, and data centers. Switches are used within
buildings in local-area networks (LANs) and across great distances in wide-area networks (WANs). Our switching products offer
many forms of connectivity to end users, workstations, IP phones, wireless access points, and servers and also function as
aggregators on LANs and WANs. Our switching systems employ several widely used technologies, including Ethernet, Power
over Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Packet over Synchronous Optical Network, and Multiprotocol Label
Switching. Many of our switches are designed to support an integrated set of advanced services, allowing organizations to be
more efficient by using one switch for multiple networking functions rather than multiple switches to accomplish the same
functions. Key product platforms within our Switching product category, in which we also include storage products, are as
follows:
Fixed-Configuration Switches Modular Switches Storage
Cisco Catalyst Series: Cisco Catalyst Series: Cisco MDS Series:
• Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series • Cisco Catalyst 4500-E Series • Cisco MDS 9000
• Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series • Cisco Catalyst 6500-E Series
• Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series • Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series
• Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series
Cisco Nexus Series: Cisco Nexus Series:
• Cisco Nexus 2000 Series • Cisco Nexus 7000 Series
• Cisco Nexus 3000 Series • Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
• Cisco Nexus 5000 Series
• Cisco Nexus 6000 Series
Fixed-configuration switches are designed to cover a range of deployments in both large enterprises as well as in small and
medium-sized businesses, providing a foundation for converged data, voice, and video services. Our fixed-configuration switches
range from small, standalone switches to stackable models that function as a single, scalable switching unit.
Modular switches are typically used by enterprise and service provider customers with large-scale network needs. These products
are designed to offer customers the flexibility and scalability to deploy numerous, as well as advanced, networking services
without degrading overall network performance.
Fixed-configuration and modular switches also include products such as optics modules, which are shared across multiple product
platforms. Our switching portfolio also includes virtual switches and related offerings. These products provide switching
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