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DAILY NEWS
Jun 21, 2005 3:53 PM
Cisco unveils application-oriented networking
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2005-06-21
Cisco Systems Inc. announced today Cisco Application-Oriented Networking (AON), an initiative that it says adds intelligence to the network, enabling the network to better understand business-application communications to support more effective and efficient business decisions.
Cisco's AON is based on technology that moves beyond the packet level to read application-to-application messages flowing within the network such as purchase orders, investment transactions or shipment approvals.
"The nature of the enterprise network is evolving from a low-function communication service to a high-function Enterprise Nervous System (ENS)," said Roy Schulte, a vice president with consulting firm Gartner Inc.
"This is changing application design and IT management practices in fundamental ways. In a conventional architecture, intelligent application systems interact through a low-function, fairly 'dumb' network.
"In an ENS-based architecture, by contrast, the network is as intelligent as the applications. The ENS offloads logic from the application systems by transforming and redirecting messages and providing other services as appropriate."
According to Cisco, enterprise IT executives today are challenged with how to better secure, integrate, and optimize business applications to improve productivity and competitiveness.
