Cisco is looking to drive adoption of Internet of Things related applications in the Industrial space, after rolling out a new Industrial Operations Kit and Ethernet 4000 (IE 4000) Series switches.
The networking giant believes the latest products will help organisations in the utilities, oil, gas and energy sectors leverage new IoT applications more efficiently and securely at reduced costs.
The virtual Industrial Operations Kit, based on the firm’s Connected Grid Network Management System, is designed to manage up to 300 industrial routers and 250,000 radio-frequency mesh endpoints with a single server.
This should help small to medium sized businesses ease the manageability and control in such applications as smart utility grids, roads, rails, airports and vehicle fleets.
The kit also includes a single headend router, bundled with Cisco PRIME Access Registrar software for authentication, authorisation and accounting, and the Connected Grid Network Management System with Cisco Embedded Services Routers for zero-touch deployment.
Meanwhile, Cisco claims the IE 4000 Series switches provide the most flexible and scalable IoT platform available, allowing users to future-proof networks by meeting the increased bandwidth and PoE requirements of industrial applications.
The firm also claims it to be the first 40Gbps Gigabit Ethernet switch which can provide twice the scalability of other industrial switches.
Other features include improved uptime and performance of industrial assets, and increased operational safety and efficiency by providing real-time information about the endpoints on the network.
"The IE 4000 and Industrial Operations Kit demonstrate how Cisco is taking the lead in bringing IoT capabilities to customers of all sizes," Cisco’s VP of IoT Systems and Software Kip Compton.
"The market is demanding new infrastructure capabilities, and Cisco’s leadership in Gigabit switching technologies and comprehensive, end-to-end field network deployment offerings puts us in a unique position to help organisations build out long term strategies that address the challenges of an IoT environment."
He added: "We have developed these offerings to give customers the ability to accelerate their IoT innovations."
