Cisco Cisco WAAS Network Analysis Module Virtual Blade 5.0 Data Sheet
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Data Sheet
© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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Cisco WAAS Network Analysis Module (NAM) Virtual Blade 4.1
The network is the foundation for application delivery. Next-generation networks need to meet the growing
challenge of effectively delivering applications and services in complex IT environments. 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.
Cisco
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WAAS NAM Virtual Blade enhances the application performance management capabilities of the
WAAS products.
Cisco NAM Virtual Blade Support of WAN Optimization
Cisco NAM Virtual Blade provides a rich set of functionality for the WAN optimization solution. Cisco NAM Virtual
Blade has the ability to process performance data from a variety of data sources. For WAN optimization, the NAM
Virtual Blade utilizes the WAAS Flow Agent as a data source. WAAS Flow Agent is an embedded part of the WAAS
software, running on WAAS products, which provides information about packet streams of interest traversing
through both LAN and WAN interfaces of WAAS products. Traffic of interest can include specific servers and types
of transactions to be exported. NAM processes the data received from the Flow Agents and derives application
performance analytics and reports as part of application performance functionality called Intelligent Application
Performance (IAP). Cisco NAM Virtual Blade can leverage IAP to provide a pre- and post-WAAS deployment
application performance view. Customers can get valuable information in terms of WAN optimization achieved and
help determine improvements in user experience.
The software form factor of the Cisco NAM Virtual Blade helps ensure that there is no additional hardware footprint
and complements existing NAM hardware that consists of Cisco Branch Router Series NAM, Cisco Catalyst
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6500/Cisco 7600 Router series NAM and Cisco NAM appliances. The consistent functionality across all platforms
helps customers to deploy a combination of these products depending upon network traffic loads in their network
locations. Cisco NAM Virtual Blade can also provide for application performance management on data sources other
than WAAS Flow Agent, including Cisco NetFlow and port-level statistics. Using multiple data sources for different
network locations provides a holistic network-level view for customers through a single Traffic Analyzer GUI.
The Cisco NAM Virtual Blade is targeted for small data center deployments and proof of concept (PoC)/pre-
deployment rollouts.
Cisco NAM Virtual Blade for Small Data Center Deployments
Cisco NAM Virtual Blade provides for integrated performance management capabilities on the WAAS appliances for
small data centers by using WAAS Flow Agent from the data center as well as from remote sites. Small data centers
can be typically characterized as network deployments of fewer than 4000 flows that have been optimized by the
WAAS products. Figure 1 shows a typical deployment model for the NAM Virtual Blade.