The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are designed for distributed organizations with multiple branch offices and remote sites. Today's branch offices offer full services through cloud, mobile, and multimedia applications, and require increased direct communication with both private data centers and public clouds across VPNs and the Internet.
The Cisco 4000 Series uses Cisco IOS XE Software, the same Linux-based OS found on the bigger ASR 1000 Series platforms. Cisco IOS XE retains the design and user interface of the Cisco IOS OS used by previousgeneration Cisco routers, yet allows the use of multicore CPUs. This setup facilitates separation of the data and control planes and uses dedicated CPUs for services.