Cisco is set to take the veils off its Nexus Project, a unified switch that combines storage and computing in data centers for enterprises.

An excerpt from InfoWorld:

The Nexus brings Cisco into not just a new territory for its business, but a new product category: a unified switch that spans storage and computing in datacenters and has security built in. Given the stakes, superlatives are natural.

— A single Nexus chassis will be able to handle more than 15Tbps of traffic ripping through a data center, up from just 2Tbps for a current Catalyst 6500 switch.

— At that rate, the switch could run 5 million concurrent transcontinental conferencing sessions using Cisco’s TelePresence Collaboration system. It could also copy the entire searchable Internet in 7.5 minutes.

— One interface module for the Nexus 7000 chassis will come with 32 10Gbps ports, and the platform is designed to support future interfaces including 100Gbps.

— The company spent about $250 million on research and development for the new platform, and at its peak, the Nexus R&D team numbered more than 500 engineers, according to Tom Edsall, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Cisco’s Data Center Business Unit.

The Nexus 7000 will also feature Cisco’s first completely virtualized OS. The first products are expected to be rolled out in the second quarter of this year.

More information:

Cisco’s Nexus Forms Core of Data-Center Drive (PC World)

Clash of network switches (Mercury News)

Cisco punts massive Nexus 7000 switch (Channel Register)

Cisco Announces New Data Center Concept with Nexus (eFlux Media)