The speed of change in market and business environments is requiring IT to be more strategic than ever before. Evolving business models are creating complex technology challenges that IT must address.

To address these emerging network trends, new business network architectures are necessary. These architectures must account for the network design principles established in the Cisco Enterprise Architecture, as well as the overlaying policies and technologies that allow organizations to support emerging trends in a safe and manageable way.

To meet this need, Cisco has introduced the following three network architectures, as shown in the figure:

Note: Network architectures continually evolve. The intent of this section is to provide an introduction and overview of emerging architecture trends.