Cisco Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module Guía De Información

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Application security—Ensuring that critical applications, infrastructures, and data are protected from abuse and misuse

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Infrastructure simplification—Minimizing the cost and complexity of the infrastructure and reducing the number of devices and vendors by

integrating with the Cisco Catalyst 6500, the industry’s leading enterprise-class switch

Unlike application front-end appliances, it is the only product of its type fully integrated with the network, delivering the capability to create

fully virtualized partitions that allow centralized deployment with decentralized management allowing individual application teams to have full

administrative control. Cisco ACE provides all services, from Layer 2 through 7, to be partitioned within a single module with resource guarantees

and full role-based access control (RBAC).

What does Cisco mean by Application Infrastructure Control?

Given the increasing pressure on the IT organization and the need to move more quickly and collaborate across organization silos, customers

require a solution that provides tremendous control of the application infrastructure. Cisco ACE introduces the concept of virtual partitions, where

a single physical device can act as up to 250 separately managed and operated logical devices. It can be logically partitioned to support completely

separate management contexts using either a GUI-based device manager, powerful command-line interface (CLI), or an Extensible Markup

Language (XML)-based application programming interface (API). Resources can be allocated and managed based on business, application,

or customer segmentation requirements. Change control (add, delete, or change) can be done on a per-logical/-virtual instance, and RBAC gives

even more granular control with the ability to fully delegate administrative responsibility to teams using the services of a single ACE module

simultaneously. The combination of virtual partition and RBAC enables simplified workflow by delegation of functional responsibility. Because

Cisco ACE provides this layer of logical abstraction, it complements other virtualization and management approaches, including switching and

routing (through VLAN and virtual route forwarding [VRF]), storage (through virtual storage-area networks [VSANs]), and application and

security services. This operational flexibility enables quick response to business and customer demands—and does so at a lower cost and operational

complexity. By ensuring the maximum flexibility of deployment and control, Cisco ACE delivers the highest performance, most scalable and most

efficient use of the application infrastructure as a whole.

Why would an organization need Cisco ACE?

The Cisco ACE is a new product line from Cisco Systems

that offers the highest level of network and application performance, operational

flexibility, security, and application acceleration for enterprise and service provider customers. The Cisco ACE helps customers reduce their

operating costs while simultaneously increasing security and improving the end-user application experience. Although all customers considering

this function can gain value, ACE is most appropriate for the large organizations that both demand the largest scalability and have the greatest need

to rationalize their approach to application deployment.

What is the relationship between the Cisco ACE Services Module and Cisco Application-Oriented Networking (AON)?

The Cisco ACE Module is focused on providing applications with a scalable, reliable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure.

In combination with the Cisco AVS, Cisco ACE is primarily focused on delivering better end-user response times using the least resources.

The Cisco AON technology is primarily designed to support communications between business applications to provide message transformation

and switching for distributed applications. The ACE and AON are designed to solve different problems within customer organizations.

How does the Cisco ACE Services Module enhance the service module offerings for the Cisco Catalyst 6500?

Cisco ACE represents the next generation of technology currently delivered on the Cisco CSM and Cisco SSL Module (SSLM).

Previous service modules focused on a specific data center task and performed these at speeds appropriate for the general customer population.

The Cisco ACE Module, by introducing virtual partitions and consolidating multiple services on a single extensible line card, delivers these services

at unprecedented throughput, scalability and security that can be used for any IP-based application across the data center.