"Cisco is adding compute power and streamlining edge hardware and software offerings to make SD-WAN easier to deploy and manage.
Taken together enhancements are aimed at helping to better handle growing distributed enterprises but also to help simplify environments—the hardware by allowing users to collapse multiple devices into one, and the software to ease configuration and management of SD-WANs.
On the hardware side, Cisco is adding the 3U, Catalyst 8500-20X6C edge platform to its Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms Family. It is an edge aggregation device built on the Cisco’s quantum-flow processor (QFP) ASIC and promises more than three times the performance over the existing high-end Catalyst 8500 Series Edge Platform, according to Archana Khetan, head of products in Cisco’s Enterprise Routing group. “With the increased power, customers can support more users and collapse the number of boxes they need to support edge applications as needed,” Khetan said."