Cisco's will emerge in January and encompass more than just the Catalyst 6500, as initially expected. The emphasis on Big Bang, the code name for the switching upgrade, will be green and apply to Cisco's entire switching portfolio, says Marie Hattar, vice president of network systems and security solutions at Cisco.

"It's an evolutionary capability. It's not a new platform," Hattar said at Cisco's analyst conference recently. "It's really more tied to green capabilities, and how the network really enables those types of capabilities."

Hattar would not divulge any further details on Big Bang, other than to say it will emerge in late January.

Hattar was also tight-lipped on Cisco's intentions in the blade server market. Cisco is reportedly developing a blade server offering, expected in 2009, that will ostensibly compete with , and systems deployed for years within data centers.

IBM and HP have been longtime partners of Cisco's, but observers believe those relationships will be if Cisco offers its own blade server system.