The Nexus 1000V switch is a pure software implementation of a Cisco Nexus switch. It resides on a server and integrates with the hypervisor to deliver VN-Link virtual machine-aware network services.
The Cisco Nexus 1000V switch takes advantage of VMware’s vNetwork Distributed switch framework to offer tightly integrated network services as part of a server virtualization strategy. At the same time, the switch offers operations and management consistency with existing Cisco Nexus and Cisco Catalyst switches.
Cisco VN-Link and the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch provide server virtualization technology to ensure consistent, policy-based network capabilities to all physical or virtual servers in a customer’s data center.