For more discussions and topics around Service Providers, please visit our SP Community: http://cisco.com/go/serviceprovidercommunity To view this blog post (with hyperlinks): https://communities.cisco.com/community/solutions/sp/blog/2013/11/21/cisco-s-network-converged-system-ncs-delivers-the-network-foundation-for-the-internet-of-everything

1. Cisco’s Network Convergence System (NCS) Delivers the Network
Foundation for the Internet of Everything
By Sultan Dawood, Service Provider Marketing Manager, Cisco
Did you know that by 2017 there will be 8 billion machine-to-machine nodes and
another 12 billion smart devices (phones, TVs, tablets, etc) connected to the network,
each with a unique networking profile and compute and control capabilities.
Networking is fundamentally changing with the Internet of Everything
(IoE). Programmable devices like smart phones and tablets are becoming ubiquitous,
while sensor and machine-driven traffic is coming on line faster than any other category
of connected devices. The IoE will drive new demands on the network in terms of
supporting, managing and controlling these programmable devices and their associated
events. The network must deliver new levels of intelligence and flexibility while
supporting virtualization, programmability and performance. It is no longer just about
scaling the bandwidth, but also the compute and control functions to manage policies
and change responses with the right results in the expected timeframe.
Service providers need to rethink their network strategy and consider a new enhanced
architectural approach, one that delivers profitable, innovative and flexible services in real-time.
Cisco’s Evolved Programmable Network enables service providers to cost effectively build a
network architecture that brings together applications and platforms (infrastructure), thus
increasing service agility and providing full visibility of network, compute and control resources.
Cisco recently introduced the Network Convergence System (NCS) family which provides the
foundation for the Evolved Programmable Network. With its highly virtualized architecture, the
NCS delivers the network fabric with which service providers can converge their large number of
disparate networks and leverage new programmability levels to deliver new services and solutions
quickly and efficiently to their customers.
One of the biggest challenges for service providers today is to reduce their overall networking
costs while creating new monetization opportunities. One such opportunity is Cloud
services: public, private or hybrid. While service providers have a large existing infrastructure,
they continue to be challenged with their data center strategy and how they can deliver new
services faster to their customers.
The NCS family of products can help service providers cost effectively connect data
centers to better share and balance resources while providing multi-tiered service level
agreements and ultimately a powerful user experience. The NCS combined with an

2. Evolved Programmable Network, allows service providers to extend the network
between data centers to balance capacity, aggregating resources, and integrating cloud
services across data centers resulting in an intelligent network that can identify and
efficiently consume the "best" resources in the cloud. This not only optimizes application
experience but also simplifies operations to improve efficiency, accelerate network
deployment, and lower total cost of ownership.
The NCS family is built on the world’s most advanced and programmable silicon: the
Cisco nPower X1 network processor unit (NPU) delivering new levels of
programmability and virtualization that have never before existed and at system-wide
scale. With virtualized IOS-XR, service providers can increase application service
offerings, speed up provisioning velocity, and optimize network economics. The NCS
6000 supports packet optical integration with control plane integration between the
router and optical elements thus extending configuration, monitoring, proactive
redundancy, and scalability. Additionally, with the virtualized IOS-XR architecture, the
NCS 6000 supports nonstop operations during software image upgrades or module
changes providing hardware-enabled true zero-packet, zero-topology loss (ZPL/ZTL)
for in service software upgrades (ISSU). The NCS 6000 increases environmental
efficiency, using an adaptable power consumption model for both the ASIC and
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) photonics technology. These
technologies give the NCS 6000 the lowest carbon footprint in service provider routing
today. Service providers can easily configure each line card's power consumption to the
number of ports used. Finally, the NCS 6000 delivers the industry’s only petabit scale
with its multi-chassis capability.
Cisco can provide service providers with both the expertise and proven technology
today to build out an Evolved Programmable Network. As Service Providers partner with
Cisco to deploy these innovative solutions, they will be able to profit from new business
models while providing their customers with new and exciting experiences.
More Information at http://cs.co/ncs
For more discussions and topics around Service Providers, please visit our SP Community:
http://cisco.com/go/serviceprovidercommunity