InformationWeek

September 4, 2000

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Cisco Brings All-In-One Approach To Content Delivery

Product line could make it easier for customers to build their own delivery networks

By John Rendleman

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ompanies looking to set up virtual private networks for delivering multimedia video and data content to employees got a major boost last week when Cisco Systems introduced a line of content-delivery products designed to make it easier to implement such systems.

Analysts say the overall content-delivery market is about to take off. "There's a significant increase in the number of companies using the service-provider approach" to content delivery, mainly because of the high cost of setting up geographically distributed content networks, says Greg Howard, a principal analyst at the HTRC Group.

Cisco is offering another approach. "Cisco is bringing to the enterprise this interesting concept of semiprivate delivery networks using the Internet," Howard says, which would make it far easier and less expensive for customers by letting them store and distribute content efficiently from one central site.

While Cisco is late to the content- delivery market, which is dominated by Inktomi Corp., the networking giant's entry could make companies more comfortable with idea of building their own multimedia content-delivery networks instead of outsourcing them to a third-party service provider.

"From a user's perspective, there's a certain sense of security with Cisco, and what they're going after is a higher level of on-demand content-delivery service," says Bruce Fiordalisi, project manager at Central Wyoming College. Fiordalisi has been testing Cisco's enterprise content-delivery equipment.

Cisco's Content Delivery Network portfolio consists of 11 new products, scheduled for availability by October. It includes devices tailored for both virtual private networks operated by enterprises as well as networks run by service providers. The products handle a variety of tasks, including content distribution and management, content routing, content delivery at the edge of networks, content switching, and intelligent network services.

The Cisco products for enterprises include two provisioning and management appliances: the CDM 4630, priced at $19,995, and the CDM 4650, priced at $94,995; and several content engines: the CE 507, priced at $5,495; the CE 560, priced at $14,995; and the CE 560 priced at $29,995.

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