Cisco’s push towards making the network an application platform continues. With an eye toward that goal, the networking giant has launched a second-generation Integrated Services Router (ISR G2). Cisco is pitching the new routers to large MSPs that want to manage video and other emerging applications. Here’s some perspective.

True believes in the ISR G2 include Verizon, which plans to deliver a range of new services and applications using the new routers. Cisco claims the new 1900, 2900, and 3900 series models will be priced in the same neighborhood as their 1800, 2800, and 3800 series forebears, but with a fivefold performance boost to help with bandwidth-heavy services like video.

“We really see this offering as key to delivering video services,” says Mike Marcellin, Verizon’s VP of Global Managed Solutions.

For those not familiar with Cisco’s ISR strategy, the company is striving to transition the world from Windows Server-centric applications to network-centric applications that offer security, VoIP telephony and videoconferencing (among other opportunities). The ISR G2 is compatible with Cisco’s AXP (application eXtension platform), which allows Linux applications to run on Cisco’s infrastructure.

To give an idea of what AXP is capable of,  Cisco recently awarded $50,000 to a team from Spain who put together an AXP application that enables their routers to control and automate air-conditioning, heating vents, plumbing, ventilation, and lighting. Other winners in that contest included an Indian team that developed an ad platform and a German team that developed a method of using IP telephony to find security breaches in branch offices.

Still, it’s unclear how many developers are actually writing to the AXP platform.

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