Cisco's latest offerings, a new generation of the firm's much popular Integrated Services Router, has hit the markets. The newly unveiled routers are a branch office platform and have been especially optimized for video and other virtualized services. Christened the ISR G2, the new routers are designed to address demand posted by increasingly distributed and collaborative workforces.

Cisco's first generation ISRs were introduced in 2004 and have sold an excess of 7 million units since then. "The ISR line is perhaps the best-selling network product line of all time," says Zeus Kerrvala of The Yankee Group. "They've done a great job of keeping the ISR features set way ahead of any competitor, which is the reason they have north of 90% share. There's no product set that Cisco has put more focus on and it remains the cornerstone of their enterprise penetration strategy".

The ISR G2 is equipped with a service ready engine which will let users dynamically deploy remote. The main aim of the routers is to help organizations manage their power consumption and costs in a better way. The routers support the company's latest routing software, the Cisco IOS Release 15.

With the introduction of the ISR G2, Cisco aims at maintaining the dedicated customer base it has built since the introduction of the first ISRs, and reach out to a newer audience more effectively.