Cisco Turns Routers Into Linux Application Servers

By Sean Michael Kerner

Networking gear and server equipment are two distinct types of hardware, right? Not anymore.

Networking goliath Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is now opening its Integrated Services Router (ISR) and Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) platforms to become Linux-based application server platforms. The move could have wide-ranging implications, as Cisco’s gear has millions of deployments that now can be leveraged to serve applications directly.

Inbar Lasser-Raab, Cisco’s senior director of network systems, told InternetNews.com that the company has been looking to open up the ISR to third-party applications for a long time.

“We really think that we’re changing the way business models will be built in the branch,” she said. Lasser-Raab isn’t being overly dramatic, either. Cisco to date has sold more than 4 million ISRs and as such has a large installed base to target with the new application initiative.