Cisco To Develop Third-Party APIs For IOS

MT628496 tips a Computerworld article on Cisco's announcement that it plans to build IOS on a UNIX kernel, in modules, and allow third-party developers to access certain parts of it. IOS has traditionally been a closely guarded piece of software without any way for anyone to add functionality. No timetable was given for when APIs will be available. A Forrester analyst said, "...the network is one of the least programmable pieces of the infrastructure. The automation and orchestration market is far more oriented towards servers, storage and desktop environments. The ability to dynamically change the network is a missing component." The article mentions that Juniper Networks had announced on Monday its own developer platform for Juniper routers, and it's available now.

A little confused about this

[the_humeister]

Wouldn't this make the networking equipment more prone to attacks?

Hmmm.... a Unix based kernel?

[flydpnkrtn]

I wonder if they'll license something like QNX, or port one of the BSD kernels over. I can't imagine they'd use anything with the GPL, this being proprietary-out-the-ass Cisco after all.

Re:Hmmm.... a Unix based kernel?

[Phishcast]

Not so fast -- Their whole line of MDS Fibre Channel switches are Linux underneath. There's even a GPL notice that comes up when they boot.

Interesting, but...

[Zen]

Cisco IOS has already been running in house (for development purposes) on Unix for years. They call it IOU (IOS on Unix). It is a closely guarded secret. Supposedly it is fully featured and can emulate as many routers with as many interfaces as you want, all on one Solaris system. Supposedly Cisco employees get in trouble (fired??) for even mentioning its existence and certainly if they ever gave access to somebody, and only a very small number of Cisco employees even have access to it. It wouldn't be very difficult for them to take this development version that is apparently rock solid since it's been around for a number of years and roll it into a production product. Obviously this is all hearsay since I've never even seen it, but from what I'm reading, it sounds like they've been holding this trump card for a long time just waiting to unleash it if a competitor seemed like they were gaining too much ground.

Re:Hmmm.... a Unix based kernel?

[imp]

I wonder if this is related to the following post on the FreeBSD jobs list.

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=0+4570+/usr/local/www/db/text/2007/freebsd-jobs/20071209.freebsd-jobs [freebsd.org]

Re:Get a D-Link or a LinkSys, Routers r a commodit

[funkboy]

At the moment, IOX only runs on CRS-1 or [propoerly upgraded] GSRs, which pretty much excludes anything in their "enterpise" product portfolio.

Fact is, Cisco has been trying to be all things to all people and dominate every sector of the market that involves gear or software beyond the PC for such a long time that they have lost focus in their core business of making routers, where they are accustomed to market domination. Competitors have caught up to the point where anything short of carrier-grade Cisco hardware is either (a) a joke (b) overpriced, or more often (c) both. The carrier stuff at least has [most of] the performance where it counts, but if you're not a first-rate negotiator with a lot of boxes to buy it still prices itsself out of competitivity.

Basically, they just don't seem to get that IOS and their processor-forwarding-based platforms need a major overhaul in order to be capable of providing scalable carrier-grade service on their entry-level platforms.