Cisco’s announcement this week of its Application-Oriented Networking technology shows that the company sees it as more than just something that does XML acceleration.

In its press release, Cisco says “the network now speaks the language of applications” and calls AON the “next phase of the Intelligent Information Network.” In his speech, Cisco CEO John Chambers called AON “dial tone for applications,” according to my colleague Phil Hochmuth’s news article on the introduction:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/062205-cisco-aon.html

AON is one of Cisco’s moves to put more intelligence into its network equipment. With the LAN hardware market conquered, Cisco has nowhere to go, really, but up the stack. So that’s why the company is talking about intelligence and applications - typically Layer 7 stuff.

The AON piece is primarily about XML. Instead of processing XML traffic on servers, the network equipment starts to take on the load.

Cisco is collaborating with a set of partners to create AON “solutions.” These partners include EDS, SAIC, TIBCO Software, and VeriSign. Further, Cisco is working with services and software firms, including Actional, ConnecTerra, Contivo, CXO Systems, Infogain, ManTech, Trace Financial, and TransactTools.

Cisco calls this an “ecosystem,” and in a way this effort feels a lot like Cisco’s Network Admission Control program, where the company is bringing in vendors to work with it on security measures. Again, this goes back to the question of where Cisco goes from here - and the answer coming from the company is both up the stack and out to partners, so that Cisco leverages its position to ensure it remains the center of the network universe.

Check out Phil’s story (linked above) and let me know what you think of Cisco’s strategy at mailto:jcaruso@nww.com

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.