Let's talk about one of the biggest IT trends out there: THE CLOUD. And, let's talk about why it should matter to you as you're poking around and researching Cisco products. As you probably know, "the cloud" is more than just one of the hottest buzzwords out there -it's where the market is shifting towards, and quickly. But you might be wondering...why is Cisco, the market leader in networkinghardware, talking about cloud?

One word: CSR1000V.

If you need a primer on the CSR, check out this quick video below. The Cliff Notes version is that Cisco basically took its IOS XE operating system from the ASR1000 and created a virtual router, and voila -behold the CSR1000V, providing virtualized routing and security capabilities in the cloud.

As you might've heard through the grapevine, the CSR can now be deployed in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Now that we're one of the cool kids in the AWS ecosystem, it was a great time to launch the CSR1000V (AMI version) at the 2^ndannual AWS re:Invent conference held on November 12-15. re:Invent is AWS's global community (customer and partner) conference targeted at the developer crowd. This year's attendance was 9,000 strong, evenly split amongst startups, midsize companies, and large enterprises.

Bopaiah Puliyanda, Technical Marketing Engineer, chats with curious attendees at AWS re:Invent.

Taking a step back, though...Why are companies across the globe, from startups to financial services and even public sector organizations, moving their infrastructures to the cloud?

• Business agility -easier and faster to expand into the cloud
• Availability of Cloud Resources has improved
• Security -improved technologies for securing data transfer and storage
• Lower overall costs by shifting from CapEx to OpEx
• Flexible consumption -on-demand usage, can scale up or down as needed
• Deploy globally in minutes

...So you can free up resources and really focus on differentiating your business.

James Schultz, CSR Product Manager, runs a demo and has a spirited discussion with attendees.

For the first time at AWS re:Invent, Cisco set up an exhibitor booth alongside 185 other exhibitors, to chat with customers about the CSR1000V and provide a demo show-and-tell. We were amazed and frankly a little surprised at the spectrum of customers approaching our booth. Large enterprises, higher education, public sector, and startup customers alike came to check out the CSR.

From our conversations with customers at re:Invent, we tapped into what solutions they're looking for and what bugs them, either as they explore moving some of their infrastructure to AWS or enhancing their current AWS environment.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

• I'm intrigued by virtual routing in the cloud for its VPN capabilities and I want to securely connect branch sites directly to AWS cloud
• I need to connect one Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to another VPC
• I'm frustrated trying to configure Direct Connect (AWS's solution for a dedicated connection from your site to AWS cloud)
• I want to explore different licensing options aside from AWS's per-hour, per-port

Bottom line, the CSR1000V will solve these pain points and more. With a few clicks in the AWS Marketplace or directly from your favorite Cisco account rep, download the CSR and start your FREE 60-day evaluation trial now. 

Learn more about the CSR1000V here.