Cisco Cisco WAAS Network Analysis Module Virtual Blade 5.0 Data Sheet

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Data Sheet 
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Cisco WAAS Network Analysis Module Virtual Service Blade 
Software 5.0 
Network administrators need multifaceted visibility into the network and application to help ensure 
consistent and cost-effective delivery of service to end users. Knowing how traffic over the network is 
being used and how it is performing is the foundation for managing and improving the delivery of your 
business-critical applications. It is the foundation for establishing and verifying quality of service (QoS) 
policies, undertaking WAN optimization projects, and rolling out voice over IP (VoIP). 
Product Overview 
The Cisco
®
 Network Analysis Module (NAM) family of products offer combined network and application visibility that 
empower network administrators to optimize network resources, troubleshoot performance issues, and provide a 
consistent end-user experience. Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) is a comprehensive WAN 
optimization solution that accelerates applications over the WAN, delivers video to the branch office, and provides 
local hosting of branch-office IT services. 
Figure 1.    Cisco WAAS NAM Virtual Service Blade Typical Deployment 
 
Using the existing Cisco WAAS footprint, the Cisco WAAS NAM Virtual Service Blade (VSB) provides an integrated 
solution for application and network performance visibility in WAN optimized deployments. The WAAS NAM VSB 
utilizes the built-in instrumentation on WAAS devices as a data source for visibility into optimized and pass-through 
application traffic flows. WAAS devices provide information about packet streams of interest traversing through both 
their LAN and WAN interfaces. Traffic of interest include specific servers and types of transactions to be monitored. 
NAM uses the information received from the WAAS devices in the data center as well as the remote sites (Figure 1) 
to compute performance metrics, such as application response time, WAN bandwidth usage, and LAN and WAN data 
throughput, that are essential for assessing the performance improvements as a result of optimization (Figure 2).