Demand for managed services continues to show strong growth, with small businesses - those with fewer than 100 employees - expected to make up more than half of this market opportunity. These companies may have complex IT needs, but generally don't have the technical staff or expertise needed to keep up. They look to service providers for a flexible infrastructure and simplified management, along with better quality and reliability than they can achieve in-house. To meet this opportunity, service providers are transforming their networks using services-ready platforms to deliver an array of profitable IP-based communications services.

Cisco® SRP500 Series Services Ready Platforms are flexible, cost-effective fixed-configuration access routers, designed specifically to meet the needs of small business customers. Embedded intelligence enables service providers to create, provision, and deploy premium revenue-generating services - such as high-quality IP voice, data, security, and wireless - to customers on an as-needed basis. These platforms will help enable service providers to deliver differentiated, converged service offers that increase bandwidth usage and average revenue per user while reducing customer churn.

• Embedded intelligence to support a variety of high-quality voice, data, security, and wireless services.

• Integrated voice ports powered by an industry-leading Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) stack that delivers clear, high-quality voice service.

• Integrated stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewall protects against unauthorized access.

• High-speed IP Security (IPsec) with Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) VPN features allow secure remote access for mobile workers or protected site to site communication across the Internet.

• 4-port managed Ethernet switch to connect devices in the office. VLAN support allows for secure segmentation of network resources.

• Integrated 802.11n wireless access point to enable employees to connect to the network while away from their desks.

• Guest Network access provides visitors to the customer's site with controlled wireless access to the Internet, whilst ensuring that business data systems are kept safely out of reach.

• Drivers for supported 3rd and 4th generation mobile data network USB modems, allowing diverse routing and connection backup options.

• Interoperability with industry-leading soft switches and voice gateways to enable scalable, end-to-end multiservice network deployments.

• Support for industry-standard TR-069 and XML-based provisioning for zero-touch deployments.

• Easy integration with other Cisco Small Business products to enable adaptability as customer needs change.