TMCnet News

Cisco Extends SMB Product Portfolio With Several New Products

[April 12, 2012]

Cisco Extends SMB Product Portfolio With Several New Products

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/cisco/cisco-extends-smb-product-portfolio-with-several-new-products.asp.

Cisco today launched a new portfolio of small business products, including wireless, routing, switching, and voice solutions. They are also extending and enhancing the Cisco OnPlus managed service.

Cisco WAP121 Cisco WAP321

The new wireless products include the Cisco WAP121 and WAP321 Wireless-N access points. Both products feature flexible mounting, PoE, IPv6, and QoS for video and voice. The WAP121 features 4 SSIDs, 2.4GHz, Fast Ethernet LAN and retails for $173. The WAP321 features 8 SSIDS, 2.4 or 5.4 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and lists for $310. The WAP321 features "guest access" with a captive portal built-in. So when a guest attempts to browse the web, they are directed to the built in web server on the WAP321 where they can then enter a password that the business owner has provided the guest. Business owners can determine what sort of access they have as well, such as Internet access only or providing access to printers leveraging VLANs. The WAP121 and WAP321 are targeted at the entry level of the SMB with the Cisco AP541N being the next level up, followed by the Aironet 1040 and 1140.

Today, Cisco is also announcing a new line of stackable switches called the Cisco 500 Series and 500X Series, which replaces the ESW 500 Series and another line of their stackable switches. Highlights of the 500 Series: 12 models, 24 or 45 ports, Fast and Gigabit Ethernet, PoE+, IPv6, QoS, EEE Energy Efficiency. The 500X Series supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet (20 Gb aggregate), 10 GbE device connectivity, and stacking line redundancy and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for high availability. This allows you to have multiple broadband ISPs and the switch will automatically failover with no additional hardware required. This is a key feature that SMBs will enjoy. The 500/500X Series sit above the 100, 200, and 300 Series, but below the higher-end Catalyst 2960/3560/3750. List price ranges from $590 to $5,556 depending on the model.

Cisco RV180W

The Cisco RV180 and RV180W routers are new products launching today and they feature VPN tunnel capabilities to enable cost-effective remote access for your employees. They support Gigabit Ethernet WAN, 4-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, and up to 10 concurrent VPN tunnels. The RV180W Wireless-N router adds wireless functionality and is very flexible allowing you to configure it to act as a router, access point, bridge, or repeater. List price $182 for the RV180 and $249 for the RV180W.

Cisco's Dave Tang, Director of Strategy espoused the multi-purpose functionality of RV180W. He explained, "This makes it very flexible and enables it to be re-purposed. So customers love it because they can deploy it as a wireless router, but then as the routing needs progress -- if they want to for example bring in IP telephony solutions, they can then re-purpose the router as an access point elsewhere in their business." He continued, "We've heard from partners that like this approach because they can standardize on this one device and provide routing and wireless coverage that they can configure for virtually all of their customer needs." He mentioned that these two models are in the low-to-mid end of their SMB router portfolio.

Cisco also is announcing version 2.2 of the Cisco UC320W Unified Communicationsplatform, which I reviewed last year. It supports up to 24 phones with voicemail, auto-attendant, hunt groups, call forwarding and email notification of new messages. List price is $995. New features:

Enhanced Reboot	Reduce the number of changes that require the device to reboot in order to take effect.
Class of Restriction	Class of Restriction: ability to individually restrict local, international, long distance and 900 calls via drag and drop. Define three classes of service.
Toll Authorization Codes	Per trunk ability to authenticate user via a password(desired per user but acceptable as one per trunk) before making an outbound call. For example, after pressing the steering digit or the shared trunk key. Different from account codes (no CDR integration)
Support for Centrex	Ability to use Centrex lines with the UC320
Scheduled Apply	Ability to schedule a reboot

As part of the new version of Cisco UC320W v2.2, they are also announcing some new IP phones (SPA512G & SPA514G). These single-line and 4-line IP phones provide HD voice and sport a 2-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. The Cisco SPA512G and SPA514G phones are currently available. List price of $194 and $219, respectively.: