Cisco introduced the VPN Internal Service Module for the Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) portfolio, an encryption card that appeals both to private sector companies and governmental agencies that are handling sensitive material.

“The module allows you to offload the encryption process on to the card,” says Vanier, with the hardware doing the hard work of encryption and decryption of traffic at the beginning and terminating points.”

The module, which starts at $2000, features better throughput for IPsec VPN encrypted traffic or 1.2Gbps, as well as enhanced support for encryption standards such as SHA-2 and the NSA-developed Suite B algorithm suite.

SHA-2 is getting more attention from IT companies and service providers alike.  At the same time, Suite B is specifically designed for (and restricted to) governmental agencies communicating classified material.  Cisco claims that this latest release of VPN ISM is three to five time faster than its predecessor, and analyst Nick Lippis noted that “it’s highly likely that it’s the fastest implementation [of Suite B] in the industry for IPsec applications.”

These figures still need to be verified by an independent study, but if confirmed, the new offering will help solidify Cisco’s foothold in the data-driven networking security industry.

Traditional data protection measures such as RSA signatures are having a hard time handling exploding amounts of data both private and public sector organizations are taking in today.  This applies to a lot of additional aspects of the IT infrastructure as well, including the other parts of Cisco’s networking domain.  This was the motive behind the launch of several new switches earlier this month, advertised as specifically designed for data-intensive environments.

Among the new offerings is new Nexus 7009, which comes in a 14RU form factor and supports all the components of the existing Nexus 7000 Series.