In an effort to help IT Managers boost network uptime and efficiency, Cisco has announced that it has made some Internetwork Operating System (IOS)- based software advances for its Catalyst 6500 switches.

Cisco IOS subsystems will now be able to run independently while being able to heal themselves and decreasing downtime. CRN explains:

The change should help ease customer fears around adding integrated services such as VoIP or security to the switches, said Robert Keblusek, senior vice president of business development at Sentinel Technologies, a reseller in Downers Grove, Ill. “As customers add VoIP cards or security, this helps them feel comfortable that those additional feature sets aren’t going to step on the quality they’re used to on the data side.”

Cisco also is incorporating automated policy control through integration with IOS Embedded Event Manager so problems detected in individual processes can trigger a reboot or a roll back to a previous software load, said John Yen, senior manager of switching product marketing at Cisco, San Jose, Calif.

“By taking advantage of Cisco IOS Software Modularity and high availability features on our Catalyst 6500 switches within the IT Services group, we can now deploy targeted software patches to help us increase network availability while reducing operational expenditures,” said Swisscom IT Services head of corporate network engineers, Hugo Hirzel.

According to a press release, Cisco IOS Software Modularity for the Catalyst 6500 Series switches will be delivered on the existing Cisco IOS 12.2SX release, and will later be available on the Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 720 and on the Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 32.

Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.