Cisco claims to have already sold about 20,000 ISR appliances locally since it's launch in 2004.

Workhorse platform a proven cash cow

The 2600 has been a workhorse platform for business networks and a cash cow for Cisco, with more than two million units sold. But the ISR line, introduced in 2004, has already reached more than US$1 billion in sales for Cisco, and the vendor has shipped more than 500,000 ISRs - the fastest single product run rate in the company's history. Cisco's ISR success is attributed to its older 1700, 2600 and 3600 series routers getting long in the tooth, as well as new features packed in as standard in the ISR. VOIP processing, data encryption offloading, and other security features are now built into the ISR, which had required either external modules for older routers, or chewed up processor and memory resources on the platforms.

While Cisco is the dominant vendor in enterprise and small-and-midsize-business WAN routing with more than 70 percent market share, it has seen a ramp-up in competition lately from Juniper, with the release of its SSG, an integrated Juniper WAN router and Netscreen firewall. This is in addition to Nortel's acquisition of enterprise router maker Tasman Networks last year, and Alcatel's recent launch of its OmniAccess WAN router series also attempts to dig into Cisco's vast enterprise WAN installed base.

(with Phil Hochmuth)