From the "Linux-everywhere" files:

Startup Linux networking vendor Vyatta is set to announce a new hardware appliance on December 9th. The new device will add more power to Vyatta's lineup of networking products that they are targetting competitively against Cisco and other proprietary vendors.

The Vyatta 2502 will be a step up from the existing 2501 appliance which only has 512 MB RAM and 80 GB Hard Disk storage.

The new 2502 in contrast will have two 250 GB SATA drives and 1 GB of RAM. Vyatta is powering the devices with a dual-core 2.2 GHz processor.

Vyatta has been offering a Linux based router software platform since 2006. Earlier this year they upgraded their platform to version 4 of their routing platform. Vyatta Community version 5 is currently in Beta.

Using Linux and open source technology for networking gear isn't a unique proposition. In fact networking giant Cisco is one of the leading contributors to Linux kernel development (at least according to a recent Linux Foundation report). Vyatta and its marketing man Dan Roberts however argue that Vyatta offers a better cost proposition.

Cisco is the world's largest networking vendor for a number of reasons including its large sales force. I suspect that though Vyatta will make some inroads, Cisco doesn't need to be too worried. Then again the networking equipment market is a massive one and there is certainly room for many players. As the economy continues to meltdown it sure will be interesting to see how this all plays out.