Hi,
To those that are interested, I have recently been replacing some of my old Cisco WAN infrastructure (3600's) routers with the latest from Cisco.
First impressions of the new ISR routers:
Multi core CPU's
Integrated Firewall - Need license
Integrated IPS - Need license
Integrated VPN acceleration - Need license
Supports Cisco VoIP
New IOS 15 - Is pretty much 'full blown' and will include everything you will ever need apart from using the licensed integrated modules above.
3 x Gigabit interfaces
Various slots for WAN interface Cards and switch modules.
A lot easier to use for 'newbies' as one of the interfaces is now pre-configured with an IP address where you can setup the router via your browser using Configuration Professional Express or download and install the 'full blown' free Configuration Professional. The Configuration Professional GUI allows you setup everything you will ever probably need? So far I have found that IS-IS, BGP and route-maps do not seem to be supported though. Note - You will need a powerfull workstation to use the 'full blown' Configuration Professional as it 'hogs' your CPU/memory.
I personnally prefer using the CLI as being old school
It looks like Cisco are now going down the licensing route as out of the box you can only use the router functionality, but at least you now only need a single IOS.
It looks like the new ISR routers are more designed for branch-office use as everything is pretty much available that you will ever need; assuming you have already licensed everything?
CheerZ
