Most of the latest equipment advancements are focused on enhancing switch speed. An estimated 100,000 companies utilize Catalyst 6500 switches to establish networks incorporating personal computers, telephones, and various devices, as highlighted by Cisco Vice President Soni Jiandani.

A significant update is Cisco’s new supervisor engine, priced at $28,000, which is currently available. Jiandani mentioned that this engine doubles the traffic handling capacity of the Catalyst 6500. Additionally, there are seven other upgrades in the pipeline, priced between $7,000 and $60,000, expected to roll out over the next few months.

These upgrades hint at potential new features for Cisco’s product line, according to Joel Conover, principal analyst at Current Analysis. He describes the Catalyst platform as the pioneer for introducing features that eventually permeate across all Cisco products.

One notable innovation is a circuit board enabling the transmission of both electrical power and 1 gigabit per second of data through a single connection. This technology could significantly impact how businesses perceive wireless local area networks and voice over Internet Protocol, which integrates office telephone and computer networks.

The concept of “Power over Ethernet” (PoE) currently operates at speeds of around 100 megabits per second, which Conover believes is too sluggish for companies to invest in Internet phone systems. Consequently, many companies fail to leverage PoE’s primary advantage of eliminating the need for electrical outlets.

Conover emphasized the market demand for combining power and data transmission, and Cisco has successfully fulfilled this need. Switches serve as the backbone of digital networks, from the Internet to office phone systems, working alongside routers to transport digital data efficiently.

While Cisco boasts dominance in the switches and routers markets, its stronghold is particularly evident in switches. Despite competitors making headway in the router market, Cisco continues to command approximately 70 percent of the global switches market share, representing a substantial portion of the $12 billion market in 2002. Switch sales accounted for nearly half (42 percent) of Cisco’s total revenue the previous year.