Cisco's top secret spin-in Insieme Networks is developing a fabric controller for high-performance, high-density leaf-spine data center networks that will enable orchestration beyond the network to the entire data center infrastructure. Plans about Insieme's work were released to SearchNetworking this month by a source close to the company, who asked to remain anonymous.

The fabric controller will make the network much more responsive to the applications it serves -- a strategy Insieme calls "application-defined networking," the source said.

A call seeking comment was made to a phone number on Insieme's website. Insieme did not respond.

Long-rumored to be working on a software-defined networking (SDN) technology that would eventually be folded into the rest of Cisco's SDN portfolio,