Cisco Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module Prospecto

Solution Overview

Page 2 of 3

●

Faster application rollout: Simplified provisioning using Cisco AVDC reduces the number of steps involved

in provisioning, which saves some actual processing time. More important, the simplified provisioning, along

with securely delegated change control for the most commonly performed server administration load-

balancing tasks, reduces the overall time required to complete application deployment and tear-down.

●

Smooth data center transition to virtualization: In phase 1 of Cisco AVDC, Cisco directly supports the

transition from physical to virtual servers with the industry’s only virtualized load-balancing and application

delivery solution (Figure 1). Later phases will be based on this offering, extending Cisco AVDC intelligence to

achieve greater virtual data center resilience, performance, and capability.

●

Easier troubleshooting of virtual server environments: The VMware vCenter plug-in enables an operator

to view application traffic flow at the point of the application delivery controller (the Cisco ACE). This capability

makes routine operations and troubleshooting tasks much easier to perform quickly and effectively.

●

Sustained scaling: As data centers evolve from a physical-device model based on dedicated hardware to

support a given application or customer to a model that uses virtualization to abstract the underlying data

center hardware, Cisco AVDC enables greater scaling without additional costs and resources for

administration and management.

●

Reduced risk: By making the relevant portions of the virtualized load-balancing and application delivery

services available to authorized application owners and server administrators, Cisco AVDC reduces risk in

provisioning and maintenance change control.

Solution

Cisco AVDC delivers simplified provisioning of application delivery services by integrating Cisco ACE with VMware

vCenter through the implementation of a VMware vCenter plug-in that securely communicates with Cisco ANM 3.1.

From within VMware vCenter, using the functions integrated by the plug-in, the user can:

●

Deploy virtual machines as real servers into an existing server farm

●

Monitor application traffic flow for virtual machines through the Cisco ACE

●

Securely activate and suspend application traffic flows through the Cisco ACE for the associated real servers

Figure 1. Phase 1 of Cisco AVDC

Cisco ACE/ANM Functionality

in VMware vSphere Client

Cisco

ANM 3.1

vSphere

Client

VMware

vCenter 4.x

with Cisco Plug-in

Cisco

Cisco
Application
Control Engine
(ACE)

VMware

ESX
Host

Network

Infrastructure