Cisco’s new Application Oriented Network or AON business unit is designed to add more intelligence to the network and boosts a host of technical relationships, such as IBM and SAP.
It is also, according to Zeus Kerravala, analyst at Yankee Group, a difficult concept to grasp.
“I think it was a hard concept to grasp and to explain because some of the attendees seemed not to understand it,” he said.
While that may be a problem, Kerravala remains high on the concept. “At the same time, I thought it was one of the more innovative things I’ve seen from a networking company in a long time,” he said.
AON is a network-embedded intelligent message routing system that integrates application message-level communication, visibility, and security into the fabric of the network.
Cisco’s new AON business unit will roll out its first products later this year. Initial offerings will be a branch-office router and a blade that can be used with Cisco switches. Eventually, the company will add a standalone AON device and a branch-office router that connects to SAP applications, according to Cisco officials.
Kerravala believes IT managers will see some big benefits from adding intelligence to the network.
“Companies have a difficult time getting their application developers to understand the network better and vice versa,” he said.
“With this, that doesn’t have to happen, so I think it solves a lot of problems. Cisco is putting some intelligence into the network, so it can understand what it is doing, where it is from, etc. I mean we’ve tried this with load balancing and whatever, but this I think is a real step forward,” he said.
Also pleased with Cisco’s direction is CXO Systems, which is partnering with the networking giant to integrate its visibility dashboard for real-time business and risk intelligence into AON. The dashboard allows senior-level executives who require business and IT information to have access to real-time data in the enterprise, according to Malcolm Frank, CEO of CXO.
“Our collaborative efforts will help organizations decrease risk and ensure superior performance by ensuring senior managers, such as the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Security Officer (CSO), and the Chief Risk Officer (CRO), are acting on real-time data,” said Frank.
