Cisco software to connect branch offices to cloud

SAN DIEGO -- Cisco next month will release router software designed to improve cloud computing connectivity for branch offices.

Cisco will unveil Cloud Connect on May 22, said CTO Padmasree Warrior during her keynote address here this week at the Cisco Partner Summit. Cloud Connect will run on Cisco's ISR G2 and ASR 1000 routers, and provide visibility, security, availability and performance optimization for cloud connectivity, she says.

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The software is designed to improve the user experience with cloud and simplify operations, Warrior says. Cisco will demonstrate the software at the Cisco Live conference in June as well, she says.

Cloud Connect will include software modules called Cloud Connectors. Cloud Connectors will include Cisco applications such as Hosted Collaboration Services and ScanSafe, a SaaS-based Web security service. Cloud Connector software will also allow software developers to write applications to Cloud Connect to expand its capabilities, Warrior says.

Cisco will also soon unveil a product for connecting private enterprise clouds to the public cloud to create hybrid implementations, Warrior says.

The product is designed to maintain the identity, security and policies of workloads as they move form a private cloud into the public cloud.

"Maintaining the consistent policy framework that surrounds that, that's essentially what this product will do," Warrior says.

Warrior did not disclose an announcement date for this product but she indicated it may be ready for Cisco Live in June as well. Together, Cloud Connect and the private/public cloud policy maintainer sound like the Integrated Enterprise WAN Solution discussed early this year by Praveen Akkiraju, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Network Services Technology Group.

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