Switches & Bridges

Today's data centers are increasingly filled with dense rack-mount and blade servers that host powerful multicore processors. The rapid increase in in-rack computing density and the increasing use of virtualization software combine to accelerate the demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and consolidated I/O: applications for which the Cisco Nexus® 5000 Series Switches are an excellent match. With low latency and choice of front-to-back or back-to-front cooling, copper or fiber access ports, and rear-facing data ports, the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for a broad range of physical, virtual, storage access, and high-performance computing environments, thus giving customers the flexibility to meet and scale their data center requirements in a gradual manner and at a pace that aligns with their business objectives.

Today's data centers are increasingly filled with dense rack-mount and blade servers that host powerful multicore processors. The rapid increase in in-rack computing density and the increasing use of virtualization software combine to accelerate the demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and consolidated I/O: applications for which the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches are an excellent match. With low latency, front-to-back cooling, and rear-facing data ports, the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for a broad range of physical, virtual, storage access, and high-performance computing environments, thus giving customers the flexibility to meet and scale their data center requirements in a gradual manner and at a pace that aligns with their business objectives.

Today's data centers are increasingly filled with dense rack-mount and blade servers that host powerful multicore processors. The rapid increase in in-rack computing density and the increasing use of virtualization software combine to accelerate the demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and consolidated I/O: applications for which the Cisco Nexus® 5000 Series Switches are an excellent match. With low latency and choice of front-to-back or back-to-front cooling, copper or fiber access ports, and rear-facing data ports, the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for a broad range of physical, virtual, storage access, and high-performance computing environments, thus giving customers the flexibility to meet and scale their data center requirements in a gradual manner and at a pace that aligns with their business objectives.

The switch series, using cut-through architecture, supports line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports while maintaining consistently low latency independent of packet size and services enabled. It supports a set of network technologies known collectively as Data Center Bridging (DCB) that increases the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. These features allow the switches to support multiple traffic classes over a lossless Ethernet fabric, thus enabling consolidation of LAN, SAN, and cluster environments. Its ability to connect Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) to native Fibre Channel protects existing storage system investments while dramatically simplifying in-rack cabling.

In addition to supporting standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) on servers, the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series integrates with multifunction adapters called converged network adapters (CNAs) that combine the functions of Ethernet NICs and Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), making the transition to a single, unified network fabric transparent and consistent with existing practices, management software, and OS drivers. The switch series is compatible with integrated transceivers and Twinax cabling solutions that deliver cost-effective connectivity for 10 Gigabit Ethernet to servers at the rack level, eliminating the need for expensive optical transceivers. The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series portfolio also provides the flexibility to connect directly to servers using 10GBASE-T connections or fiber with Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) transceivers.

The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for data center environments with cut-through technology that enables consistent low-latency Ethernet solutions, with front-to-back or back-to-front cooling, and with data ports in the rear, bringing switching into close proximity with servers and making cable runs short and simple. The switch series is highly serviceable, with redundant, hot-pluggable power supplies and fan modules. It uses data center-class Cisco® NX-OS Software for high reliability and ease of management.

In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architecture is changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.
The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform is the third generation of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches: the industry's leading data center server access switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches can be categorized into 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps switches. This data sheet focuses on the 10-Gbps switches only. Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are the successors to the industry's widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches. The switches maintain all the existing Cisco Nexus 5500 platform features, including LAN and SAN convergence (unified ports and Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE]), fabric extenders, and Cisco® FabricPath. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches bring integrated line-rate Layer 2 and 3 capabilities with true 40 Gigabit Ethernet support (on uplink and network-facing ports), Cisco programmable fabric innovations, Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) bridging and routing, network programmability and visibility, large buffer capacity, and significantly greater scalability and performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches include both 1-rack-unit (1RU) and 2RU switches built to meet the challenges of today's data centers with a flexible, agile, and energy-efficient design. These 10-Gbps switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. These energy-efficient switches offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE, providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of port-side intake and fan-side intake airflow options to align with cold-aisle and hot-aisle placement in the data center, the 10-Gbps switches are designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The 10-Gbps switches together with the Cisco NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. NX-OS is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments.

In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architecture is changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.
The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform is the third generation of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches: the industry's leading data center server access switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches can be categorized into 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps switches. This data sheet focuses on the 10-Gbps switches only. Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are the successors to the industry's widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches. The switches maintain all the existing Cisco Nexus 5500 platform features, including LAN and SAN convergence (unified ports and Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE]), fabric extenders, and Cisco® FabricPath. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches bring integrated line-rate Layer 2 and 3 capabilities with true 40 Gigabit Ethernet support (on uplink and network-facing ports), Cisco programmable fabric innovations, Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) bridging and routing, network programmability and visibility, large buffer capacity, and significantly greater scalability and performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches include both 1-rack-unit (1RU) and 2RU switches built to meet the challenges of today's data centers with a flexible, agile, and energy-efficient design. These 10-Gbps switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. These energy-efficient switches offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE, providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of port-side intake and fan-side intake airflow options to align with cold-aisle and hot-aisle placement in the data center, the 10-Gbps switches are designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The 10-Gbps switches together with the Cisco NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. NX-OS is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 10-Gbps switches are designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments.