iiNet to offer Cisco routers to business customers

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 03 June 2010 09:13

Business IT - Networking

iiNet is ramping up its services for business customers by offering a range of Cisco routers as add-ons to its 'Business Pack' bundles of Internet, voice and other services for SMEs.

iiNet Business will offer and support three Cisco routers, including the Cisco Small Business Pro 500 Series SRP527 that, it says "has never been offered before by an Australian ISP."

According to iiNet, "Businesses can access built-in firewall security, port forwarding, high-end virtual private networking (remote network access for a number of users) and the ability to control network access'¦Additional support is available through Cisco's SmartNET and Small Business PRO services, which provide enhanced coverage and response times for product issues or replacements."

iiNet says it plans to offer other Cisco small business products, including smart switches, IP phones and wireless in the future.

CTO Greg Bader told ExchangeDaily that the company had opted to go with Cisco because "Cisco is a lot easier for ourselves, our partners or even internal IT teams to support. Cisco is very strong in this market. They are a brand people understand and our comfortable with, and the integration problems into their existing networks just disappear'¦The [Cisco operating system] has a level of familiarity to existing support people these products lend themselves to remote management and support very easily."

Details of the current range are on iiNet's web site (on a page with the interesting title of "modems & routers - doovalackeys". They are the Cisco877W-G-A-M-K9 for $899, the Cisco877-M-K9 for $799 and the SRP527W-K9G4 for $429. The 877W and SRP527W incorporate a wireless access point. All incorporate an ADSL modem and the SRP527 also supports a 3G dongle.

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