The CRS-3’s throughput of 322 Terabits per second is mind-boggling enough. But just as important is Cisco’s acknowledgement that the nature of Internet traffic is changing. What started as a packet data network is now quickly becoming dominated by video transmissions, mobile services, and new architectures such as cloud computing. You might yawn at the old benchmark of how long it takes to download the Library of Congress (1 second), but I’ll bet you’ll be impressed to know that the CRS-3 can stream every motion picture ever made in less than 4 minutes. Now, that’s video-ready!
Speaking of video-ready, check out this informational video from Cisco to see the CRS-3 in action and learn more about its capabilities:
Obviously, this isn’t something you’re going to install in the basement of your house or in the office of a quick serve restaurant. Entry level pricing is $90,000 and goes up from there. But if you are an Internet service provider or operate a fiber optic content delivery network, you may be eyeing one of these with a thought to purchase sooner than you think. Perhaps you’ll simply want to upgrade your CRS-1 Carrier Routing System as gigabits of video content grow geometrically.
AT&T can see the future coming. They recently tested the Cisco CRS-3 on a 100 Gigabit link between New Orleans and Miami. It’s not just server capacity that will have to grow by leaps and bounds. Network connections will also have to scale up across the board.
How’s your network capacity doing? Are you about to use up the remaining margin in your copper or fiber optic WAN? If so, you’ll be pleased to know that bandwidth upgrades at all service levels are more available and affordable than ever before. In many cases you can get more capacity for the same price you are paying now. Want to find out if that’s possible for your situation? Check out Gigabit bandwidth prices and availability now.
