Cisco comes up with a Nexus 1000V Free Edition

Cisco Nexus 1000V Essential and Advanced Edition

VERSION 3  

Created on: Oct 3, 2012 3:33 PM by ekeener - Last Modified:  Oct 3, 2012 4:31 PM by ekeener

Announcement Overview

Cisco is announcing a new go-to-market (GTM) model for the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series virtual switch for Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Release 2.1 - 4.2(1)SV2(1.1). The Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Release 2.1 software is being offered in two editions: Essential (free1) and Advanced (paid).

• Cisco Nexus 1000V Essential Edition: Available at no cost1, the Cisco Nexus 1000V Essential Edition provides most of the comprehensive Layer 2 networking features of the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series, including VXLAN, Cisco vPath for service insertion and chaining, and VMware vCloud Director integration, as well as the operation simplification enhancements of Release 2.1 (such as the VMware vCenter plug-in, vTracker, and enhanced upgrade). This free version will enable rapid, risk-free adoption of Cisco’s virtual network technology in a single- or multiple-hypervisor environment.
• Cisco Nexus 1000V Advanced Edition: This version offers value-added security features such as Domain Host Control Protocol (DHCP) snooping, IP source guard, Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Inspection, and Cisco TrustSec® Secure Group Access (SGA) support (a new feature in Release 2.1). The Cisco VSG zone-based virtual firewall is also included in the Advanced Edition.

Extracted from: https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-31313