In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architecture is changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is the third generation of industry's leading Data Center Server-Access Nexus 5000 series of switches. Cisco Nexus 5600 is the successor of industry's most widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 series switches that maintain all the existing Nexus 5500 features including LAN/SAN convergence (Unified Ports, FCoE), Fabric Extenders (FEX) and Fabric Path, but in addition brings integrated line-rate Layer 2/3 with true 40GE support, Cisco's Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) innovation, NVGRE, VxLAN bridging & routing capability, network programmability & visibility, deep buffers and significantly higher scale & performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments. The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform switches include both 1RU and 2RU switches built to overcome these challenges with a flexible, agile and energy efficient design. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are energy-efficient switches that offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed, and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of front-to-back (port-side exhaust) and back-to-front (port-side intake) airflow options, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switch is designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform with Cisco® NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. Cisco NX-OS Software is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.