Networking Software (IOS & NX-OS)

Program and Automate Your Switches

Learn how you can take full advantage of the many capabilities of the new open NX-OS. (21:25 min)

Cisco Networking Software (Cisco IOS, Cisco IOS XE, Cisco IOS XR, and Cisco NX-OS) is the world's most widely deployed networking software. It integrates cutting-edge technology, business-critical services, and broad hardware platform support.

You can now take advantage of shared software and the ability to maintain consistent features with reusable code across the network. This helps you deliver services faster and improve innovation.

Improve Operational Efficiency

Integrate industry leading NX-OS programmability into your data center.

Networking Software Systems

    Cisco IOS

    • Integrates technology, business services, and hardware support
    • Reduces operational spending
    • Optimizes return on investment
    • Improves business productivity

    Cisco IOS XR

    • Focuses on the needs of service providers
    • Designed for the dynamic network usage requirements of services
    • Flexible programmability for dynamic reconfiguration

    Cisco IOS XE

    • Supports next-generation platforms
    • Runs as a single daemon within a modern Linux operating system
    • Separates the data plane and control plane
    • Improved services integration

    Cisco NX-OS

    • Open, modular and programmable for an agile data center infrastructure
    • Optimized for both physical and virtual data center deployments
    • Highly reliable continuous system operation, optimizing uptime

    Core Technologies

      Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)

      Cisco ACI is a comprehensive software-defined networking (SDN) architecture that automates IT tasks, accelerates data center application deployments, and significantly reduces TCO.

      Cisco DNA Software

      Cisco DNA Software is a valuable and flexible way to buy software for your data center, WAN, and access domains.

      Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

      Get standards based-control protocol for VXLAN, helping to enable cloud scalability and multivendor interoperability.

      IPv6

      IPv6 expands the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet.

      Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

      Converge data Ethernet traffic and Fibre Channel (FC) traffic over a single Ethernet wire.

      Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP)

      LISP is a routing architecture that provides new semantics for IP addressing.