SAN JOSE, Calif. – Networking technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSO) reports that sales of its fastest, most expensive network router have surged in the past nine months, the company announced today.
In the three calendar quarters starting in July 2007, sales of its Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) – the core platform for Cisco’s Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture – have exceeded sales in the preceding three years, bringing total cumulative sales to more than 1,800 units, the company said.
“Exponential traffic growth on the Internet – driven largely by increased deployment of video services – is causing more and more providers to rethink their core architectures,” Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, said in a statement. “Highly scalable, reliable and intelligent core platforms such as the Cisco CRS-1 help providers meet their needs, as business and residential consumers demand more video content in increasingly personalized bundles.”
Cisco predicts that, by three years from now, Internet traffic will quadruple. Video traffic will drive that increase – soaring to 20 times its 2006 level or an estimated 1 billion DVDs worth of traffic each month in 2011 – as more telephone companies join Verizon Communications Inc. in offering television signals as well.
“The CRS-1 helps providers scale their networks while removing many of the technical limitations that have restricted development and delivery of advanced applications,” Kelly Ahuja, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Core Routing Business Unit, said in a statement today.
“With CRS-1 as part of an IP Next Generation architecture for service providers, business and residential Internet users really can have the high-quality, personalized, network-enabled experience that they want, whenever and wherever they want it.”
The CRS-1 sells for $450,000 per unit and up, according to Bloomberg News. Cisco shares rose on the news to close up 89 cents at $24.98 in Nasdaq trading.
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSO) is the world’s largest manufacturer of networking technology. Its IP-based solutions are used worldwide to transport data, voice and video via internal networks and the Internet. To learn more, visit www.Cisco.com.
