IRG Press Release

Los Altos, CA , January 3, 2007 – Internet Research Group (IRG) today announced the release of a new infrastructure report – Cisco’s SONA Unwound – Virtualization Intersects Appliances (again).  At its recent analyst conference, Cisco provided insight into its evolving software strategy.  For years Cisco has painted an Intelligent Information Network vision and over a year ago first introduced its Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) but with little clarity on how Cisco would implement this vision.  Cisco’s software strategy exploits the virtualization of existing Cisco blade and box appliances. Quite abruptly this gives Cisco a very plausible platform for delivering advanced network services in a relatively short timeframe.

“Like so many companies, Cisco has jumped on the virtualization bandwagon,” noted Peter Christy, co-founder of IRG. “The impact may be surprisingly large given the large installed base of exploitable server systems and server slots in Cisco-powered networks.”

The study, available now, follows IRG’s recent study, Virtual Appliances -- Virtualization Intersects Appliances (and more) released in December.  A table of contents can be found at www.irg-intl.com.   The vendors impacted by this report range broadly across the networking and virtualization spectrum and include Cisco, Juniper, Nortel, VMware, XenSource, Riverbed and Microsoft.

The study is available now.  A table of contents for this study can be downloaded by clicking here.  

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About Internet Research Group -- The Internet Research Group (IRG) provides market research and market strategy services to product and service vendors. IRG services combine the formidable and unique experience and perspective of the two principals: John Katsaros and Peter Christy, each an experienced industry veteran.  The overarching mission of IRG is to help clients make faster and better decisions about product strategy, market entry, and market development. IRG is located in Los Altos, CA and can be contacted by phone at 650-559-6222, via the Web at www.irg-intl.com or via e-mail at jkatsaros@irg-intl.com. Katsaros and Christy recently published a book on these topics (Getting It Right the First Time – Praeger, 2005 www.gettingitrightthefirsttime.com ).

Editor’s note: Peter Christy is available to provide background discussion, quotes or references for articles related to network infrastructure and security.

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