Q. What is Cisco® Wide Area Application Services (WAAS)?
A. Cisco 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. It allows IT departments to centralize applications and storage in the data center while maintaining LAN-like performance, and enables locally hosted IT services while reducing the branch-office device footprint.
Cisco WAAS enables organizations to accomplish these primary IT objectives:
• Improve employee productivity by enhancing the user experience for important business applications
• Reduce the cost of branch-office operations by centralizing IT resources in the data center and reducing the cost of WAN bandwidth
• Increase IT agility by reducing the amount of time and resources required to deliver IT services to the branch office
• Simplify data protection for business continuance and regulatory compliance
Q. What challenges does Cisco WAAS solve?
A. IT departments face several critical challenges in the deployment and management of costly branch-office applications, servers, storage, and local services, including:
• High capital and operating costs associated with local deployment and management of servers, storage, and backup to meet performance requirements within the branch office
• Delivery of a global and consistent user experience when users access centralized applications and data
• Delivery of high-quality video to branch offices
• Pressure for consolidation of remote infrastructure to meet regulatory compliance mandates and business continuity and data protection requirements while keeping local critical network services in the branch offices
• Limited IT resources at headquarters to support remote offices, as well as the cost of onsite IT staff
To address these business and compliance requirements, consolidation of multiple technologies from branch offices to data center is becoming a common strategy. In addition, many new applications are being deployed directly from the data center and delivered to remote users. At the same time, organizations desire the flexibility to provide certain branch-office IT services even when WAN is down. Although both these strategies deliver benefits in reduced operating costs and complexity, they also raise new concerns that can significantly affect end-user and IT manager productivity, such as:
• Slow response times and poor performance as applications traverse the WAN, resulting from factors including WAN latency, bandwidth constraints, and protocol inefficiency
• Increased WAN link costs, requiring more careful management of bandwidth utilization
• Potential increase in the number of branch-office devices due to the requirements of provisioning essential branch-office IT and application services
• Need for bandwidth upgrades and complex configuration to achieve widescale delivery of live video across the organization
• Increased need for quality of service (QoS), security, and visibility for troubleshooting as significantly more traffic traverses the WAN (centralized applications, voice over IP [VoIP], and video)
Cisco WAAS enables IT departments to take advantage of the business, compliance, and operational benefits of branch-office consolidation and application centralization while removing the performance effects of delivering applications and data across the WAN. It accelerates applications over the WAN, delivers video to the branch office, and provides local hosting of branch-office IT services, enabling IT departments to centralize applications and storage in the data center while maintaining LAN-like application performance and provide locally hosted IT services while reducing the overall branch-office device footprint.
Q. What types of organizations can benefit from Cisco WAAS?
A. Cisco WAAS is targeted at distributed organizations of any size with remote locations and offices that are attempting to:
• Increase user productivity by enhancing the user experience for business applications such as email, Microsoft Office, file sharing, SharePoint, SAP, and Oracle applications
• Reduce the cost of branch-office operations by centralizing IT resources such as file and print servers and storage backup tapes in the data center
• Reduce costs by reducing, deferring, or eliminating the need for WAN bandwidth upgrades
• Deliver live video to the branch office without requiring expensive bandwidth upgrades or complex configuration of the network that increases operating costs
• Increase IT agility by reducing the amount of time and resources required to deliver new IT services to the branch office without causing device sprawl
Q. What is the return on investment (ROI) with Cisco WAAS?
A. Customers achieve ROI with Cisco WAAS primarily through the following benefits:
• Improved employee productivity with LAN-like application performance over the WAN for important business applications such as email, Microsoft Office, file sharing, SharePoint, SAP, and Oracle applications: Application response times improve by up to 100X.
• Consolidated branch-office infrastructure such as file and print servers, storage, and backup tapes: Companies can save on hardware, software, IT, and storage management costs. Server reduction of up to 10X can be achieved through consolidation powered by Cisco WAAS server offload capabilities.
• Increased effective WAN bandwidth of up to 10X due to the strong WAN optimization capabilities of Cisco WAAS: Often, Cisco WAAS results in deferral or elimination of WAN bandwidth upgrades for infrastructure projects such as VoIP and Live Video.
• Elimination or mitigation of the need for WAN upgrades to deliver high-quality live video to the branch office: Cisco WAAS enables widescale delivery of high-quality live video to branch offices by offering automated edge-stream splitting that helps ensure that only one video stream is downloaded over the WAN regardless of the number of users in the branch office viewing that stream. The automation feature eliminates the complex configuration that is required in traditional video delivery systems. The solution also offers server offload capability that often provides a 10X reduction in the number of data center video servers.
• Increased IT agility for flexible delivery of branch-office IT services while reducing the branch-office device footprint: Delivery is now possible within hours instead of the days or weeks often required for dedicated hardware-based deployments. This speed-up is achieved through Cisco WAAS network-embedded virtualization, which enables hosting of third-party services on isolated virtual blades. This architecture maintains native performance for WAN optimization while using the same hardware platform for additional hosted services. The virtual blades feature can be used to deploy many different Windows and Linux branch-office services on the Cisco WAAS appliances. The first set of certified and supported hosted services includes Windows Active Directory, Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and print services as part of Windows Server 2008 core services.
The net savings over a 3-year period can be significant, with the investment payback typically around 6 to 9 months. Over a typical 3-year refresh cycle, savings per location can include the following cost factors:
• Reduction in local file, mail, application, software distribution, print, video, and other servers
• Reduction in backup hardware, software, and maintenance; and local tape drives, tape media, and offsite storage
• Reduced server and storage management (IT) costs
• Savings generated through reduced bandwidth consumption, eliminating or mitigating WAN upgrades while offering higher availability and reduced downtime (faster restore operations), greater productivity (email, file sharing, web-based applications, and collaboration), and easier access to high-quality live video used for events such as CEO broadcasts
• Savings generated by elimination of support and refresh costs on hardware appliances used today for delivering branch-office IT services
Cisco WAAS Solution Description
Q. How does Cisco WAAS fit into the overall Cisco Application Networking Services (ANS) portfolio?
A. Cisco ANS is a portfolio of products that provide networkwide, fully integrated application networking technologies that supply the availability, security, and acceleration needed to help ensure that applications are delivered successfully, while using virtualization technologies to provide scale and flexibility to reduce the device footprint and lower power, cooling, and space requirements. Cisco ANS products are a crucial component of the Cisco Data Center 3.0 solution set, enabling the creation of end-to-end application delivery networks and the successful deployment and delivery of applications organizationwide and globally to all users. The Cisco WAAS solution supports Cisco ANS by solving application performance problems caused by WAN conditions in connections between branch offices and the data center. Coupled with Cisco data center application delivery solutions, Cisco WAAS provides the industry's most comprehensive range of application-fluent, network-based services for improving the value and effectiveness of enterprise application deployments.
Q. What component products make up the Cisco WAAS solution?
A. The Cisco WAAS solution consists of the following components:
• Cisco Wide Area Application Engine (WAE) hardware platforms, including appliances and network modules for the Cisco Integrated Services Routers; there are five hardware appliance models-the Cisco WAE-512, WAE-612, WAE-674, WAE-7341, and WAE-7371-and three network module models-the Cisco NME-302, NME-502, and NME-522 Network Modules
• Cisco WAAS Software with two different base software licenses-an enterprise license and a transport license-and two add-on licenses-one for enterprise video delivery and one for virtual blade services. Enterprise license is a prerequisite to order these add-on licenses.
• Cisco WAAS Central Manager (required for each deployment consisting of a Cisco WAE running the enterprise license)
• Cisco WAAS Mobile client and server software for extending Cisco WAAS benefits to mobile employees regardless of location
• Cisco WAAS Mobile client and server software for extending Cisco WAAS benefits to mobile employees regardless of location
Q. How is Cisco WAAS 4.1 deployed and managed?
A. Cisco WAAS 4.1 simplifies deployment by using automation to eliminate many previously manual configuration steps. It also offers a quick setup wizard for even faster deployments.
Cisco WAAS Software running on Cisco WAE platforms is deployed in the data center and remote-office locations in appliances attached to the LAN or in network modules (Cisco NME-WAE) integrated into the Cisco Integrated Services Router in the branch office. Customers typically deploy a single Cisco NME-WAE or Cisco WAE appliance running Cisco WAAS Software in each branch office and one or more Cisco WAEs with the same Cisco WAAS Software in the data center. One Cisco WAE is also deployed to provide central management functions to manage and monitor all the Cisco WAEs in the Cisco WAAS network.
Cisco WAAS 4.1 enhances the ease of ongoing operations with a revised management user interface that includes customizable reporting, new diagnostic and troubleshooting tools, intuitive workflow-based management, and real-time monitoring. Cisco WAAS 4.1 also offers an XML API for integration into customers' network management and monitoring systems.
Cisco WAAS Mobile can be deployed with or without a Cisco WAE device, which provides branch-office user acceleration:
• Acceleration of mobile and branch-office users: Cisco WAAS Mobile and Cisco WAE
• Acceleration of mobile and small-office or home-office (SOHO) users only: Cisco WAAS Mobile
Q. What is the Cisco WAAS Network Module?
A. Cisco WAAS Network Module is the industry's first and only router-integrated application acceleration and WAN optimization solution. The Cisco WAAS Network Module integrates with the Cisco Integrated Services Routers to give customers a unique solution that helps enable consolidation of branch-office infrastructure, accelerates application performance over the WAN, enables delivery of high-quality video to the branch office, optimizes WAN utilization, and simplifies data protection and backup operations. The network module lowers the TCO of branch-office infrastructure and simplifies deployment and management through physical and logical integration with the Cisco Integrated Services Routers.
Q. What are the models of the Cisco WAAS Network Module?
A. The Cisco WAAS Network Module is offered in three models: Cisco NME-302, NME-502, and NME-522. The Cisco NME-302 provides customers with a low-cost, high-performance platform for accelerating access to applications over the WAN and for optimizing WAN bandwidth utilization. The Cisco NME-502 and NME-522 help customers consolidate branch-office servers, storage, and data protection solutions in the data center, accelerate application access, and obtain near-LAN performance for centralized applications across the WAN, improving WAN utilization and reducing the cost of WAN bandwidth.
Q. Which routers does the Cisco WAAS Network Module run on?
A. The Cisco WAAS Network Module is designed to work with the Cisco 2800 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers. The router models include the Cisco 2811, 2821, 2851, 3825, and 3845 Integrated Services Routers.
Q. How does Cisco WAAS provide near-LAN performance across the WAN?
A. The Cisco WAAS 4.1 solution provides LAN-like performance across the WAN through a combination of technologies, including:
• Application acceleration: Cisco WAAS 4.1 mitigates latency and bandwidth through advanced protocol optimizations, including read-ahead, message prediction, and caching. This application-specific acceleration, has been developed and validated with application vendors for Microsoft Exchange; for HTTP applications from Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft SharePoint; and for Windows print services and UNIX network file server (NFS) services.
• Throughput optimization: Cisco WAAS 4.1 improves behavior of transport protocols to make them more efficient in WAN environments.
• Bandwidth optimization: Cisco WAAS 4.1 reduces the transmission of redundant data patterns through Cisco WAAS Data Redundancy Elimination (DRE) and compression.
Q. How does Cisco WAAS integrate into security architecture?
A. Cisco WAAS offers the industry's only secure WAN optimization solution that accelerates application delivery over the WAN without compromising enterprise security. It provides the following capabilities:
• Cisco WAAS offers the industry's first solution for securing accelerated traffic by preserving full firewall functions and supporting network virus scanning using an intrusion prevention system (IPS). The solution integrates with the Cisco portfolio of firewall products, including Cisco IOS Firewall, ASA 5500 Series Enterprise Firewall Edition, PIX® Firewall Software, and Catalyst® 6500 Series FWSM, to provide complete stateful firewall inspection for all traffic, including accelerated traffic. Cisco WAAS also allows IPS to perform network virus scanning for accelerated traffic, preserving and enhancing the security of data in transit.
• Cisco WAAS secures data at rest on Cisco WAAS devices using Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 level 2-compliant 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) disk encryption with automatic and centralized key management. Combined with unique features such as RBAC and integration with external authentication systems, Cisco WAAS secures data at rest on the Cisco WAAS device against accidental or malicious compromise.
• Cisco WAAS is the only WAN optimization product being evaluated for CCEVS or ISO 15408 and PCI 1.1 compliance.
Q. Is Cisco WAAS FIPS compliant?
A. Cisco WAAS has FIPS 140-2 level 2-based 256-bit AES disk encryption with automatic and centralized key management, which prevents data leakage by encrypting all locally stored data. Disk encryption, combined with RBAC and integration with external authentication systems, protects all data and services on the Cisco WAAS device from potential compromise.
Q. Is Cisco WAAS Common Criteria certified?
A. Cisco WAAS is the only WAN optimization solution that is being evaluated for CCEVS or ISO 15408 and PCI 1.1 compliance.
Q. How does Cisco WAAS enable performance management?
A. Cisco WAAS and NetQoS collaborate to create the industry's first management interface that allows performance management products to accurately report WAN optimization ROI benefits. As a result, NetQoS is the only network performance management vendor to provide totally accurate reports on end-to-end application response time and WAN bandwidth utilization, helping IT departments improve the WAN optimization ROI delivered by Cisco WAAS. Cisco WAAS 4.1 offers an Extensible Markup Language (XML) API to provide integration into customers' network management and monitoring systems, enabling customers to query monitoring information collected on the Cisco WAAS Central Manager.
Q. Can Cisco WAAS accelerate applications to mobile employees not in the branch office?
A. Yes. Cisco WAAS Mobile extends application acceleration benefits to any employee regardless of location. Mobile users typically see 2X to 5X acceleration on initial downloads and 20X or greater acceleration on subsequent transfers.
Q. How do I deploy Cisco WAAS Mobile?
A. Cisco WAAS Mobile is a purpose-built, ready-to-use software solution consisting of client software for end users and software deployed on servers near existing VPN concentrators. The client-side software is transparent and requires no user maintenance or local configuration changes.
• Remote client configuration and installation is straightforward. The Cisco WAAS Mobile client configuration is established by the system administrator, and the client software image can be loaded directly to remote devices using standard software distribution products including Microsoft, LANDesk, Altiris, and BigFix system management programs. The software client can also become part of the standard enterprise desktop image.
• Self end-user installation is also available. Although the Cisco WAAS Mobile client software can be installed and configured by the end user, standard enterprise configurations can be used to help ensure that the client software is operational without any user interaction.
• No reconfiguration of applications is required. Cisco WAAS Mobile client redirects data transparently to help ensure that no configuration changes are required for any application.
• Incoming ports on client firewall or other local security software do not need to be opened. Existing desktop security is fully preserved.
• Autodetection of high-speed networks enables automatic transition to an office network.
Cisco WAAS Mobile server software can be deployed easily as well:
• No changes are required to the application or file servers.
• No changes are required in network resources such as routers, switches, and WAN accelerators.
• No changes to IP network topologies are needed because the traffic is directed to the Cisco WAAS Mobile server through the client software.
• In the event of a server failure, the only effect is loss of optimization, not loss of connectivity.
• Cisco WAAS Mobile server is fully compatible with standard load-balancing solutions such as the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) for high-availability configurations.
• Deployment in enterprise environments is flexible. Cisco WAAS Mobile can be deployed with or without a Cisco WAE device, enabling flexible deployment in enterprise environments and providing any user acceleration:
– Acceleration for mobile and home-office users only: Cisco WAAS Mobile only
– Acceleration for mobile and branch-office users: Cisco WAAS Mobile and Cisco WAE
Cisco WAAS Competitive Advantages
Q. How does Cisco WAAS 4.1 differ from other WAN optimization solutions?
A. Organizations adopt Cisco WAAS primarily to obtain three benefits that it offers in comparison to other WAN optimization solutions on the market today:
1. Application-Vendor validated
Cisco has worked with the major application vendors such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, and IBM to create validated designs that are jointly published with the application vendors and cover the full range of Cisco application delivery products. These designs offer best practices and significantly reduce the risk of deploying WAN optimization to accelerate these applications.
Cisco WAAS provides application-specific acceleration, developed and validated with application vendors for Microsoft Exchange, HTTP applications such as those from Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft SharePoint; and Windows print and UNIX NFS services.
Cisco WAAS application-specific acceleration does not reverse-engineer application protocols; instead, Cisco licenses proprietary protocols from major application vendors to help ensure outstanding performance and excellent interoperability.
Cisco WAAS has joint support agreements with major application vendors to provide operational coverage.
2. Network integrated
The architecture of Cisco WAAS enables it to transparently integrate into the network and preserve existing network services, thereby making WAN optimization easy to deploy and operate.
Cisco WAAS preserves the transparency of accelerated traffic, helping ensure that network services in Cisco IOS Software and third-party products can properly identify traffic and perform their required services (QoS, firewall, etc.).
Cisco WAAS offers automatic discovery of Cisco WAAS devices across the network, simplifying operations for all types of WAN architectures, including Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), hierarchical networks, and hub-and-spoke topologies. Cisco WAAS supports most traffic interception methods, including simple inline and robust out-of-band deployments, for all types of Cisco WAAS devices (standalone and router integrated).
Cisco WAAS integrates with all the Cisco firewalls-Cisco IOS Firewall, ASA 5500 Series Enterprise Firewall Edition, PIX Firewall Software, and Catalyst 6500 Series FWSM-to provide the only WAN optimization solution in the industry that gives customers full stateful firewall capabilities for accelerated traffic.
Cisco WAAS offers disk encryption to protect data at rest in the cache in the event of a lost or stolen device.
Cisco WAAS has comprehensive RBAC to help ensure secure management capability in large cross-functional organizations.
Cisco WAAS is the only WAN optimization solution being certified for CCEVS or ISO 15408.
Because Cisco WAAS preserves network transparency, it integrates into the Cisco IOS QoS architecture and thus helps ensure reliable prioritization, bandwidth allocation, and protection and control of latency-sensitive voice traffic. Cisco WAAS in combination with Cisco IOS QoS unifies a single QoS framework, eliminating the need to manage and correlate two sets of independent policies.
Cisco WAAS integrates with Cisco PfR, which complements Cisco WAAS by providing optimized route selection for application and voice traffic based on the latency, packet loss, monetary cost, capacity, and jitter of the various network links between the branch office and the data center. For example, this feature helps ensure that latency-sensitive voice traffic gets the best route even when application acceleration is deployed.
For inline deployments, Cisco WAAS offers a low-latency VoIP traffic bypass feature that has been stress tested with Cisco VoIP test beds.
3. Lowest TCO (Most Cost Effective)
Cisco WAAS 4.1 is cost effective, offering the lowest cost of ownership in the marketplace.
Integration with Cisco Integrated Services Routers can lower operating expenses by up to 70 percent.
Support costs are 50 to 60 percent less than those for competitive offerings across 3-5 years.
Cisco WAAS can decrease the centralized server load by up to 90 percent through advanced caching and proxy capabilities, thereby reducing the number of file, print, software distribution, and video servers needed and decreasing power, cooling, and space requirements.
Cisco WAAS eliminates the need for bandwidth upgrades and complex configuration for widescale delivery of live video.
Cisco WAAS virtual blades provide local hosting with centralized deployment for Windows- and Linux-based branch-office services while reducing the branch-office device footprint.
Integration into the existing WAN architecture complements Cisco IOS Software features such as QoS and PfR, reducing WAN bandwidth costs.
Q. How do organizations benefit from network transparency?
A. The architecture of Cisco WAAS enables it to transparently integrate into the network and preserve existing network services, thereby making WAN optimization easy to deploy and operate.
Cisco WAAS preserves the transparency of accelerated traffic, helping ensure that network services in Cisco IOS Software and third-party products can properly identify traffic and perform their required services (QoS, firewall, etc.).
Q. How does Cisco WAAS lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for WAN optimization?
A. Cisco WAAS Software Version 4.1 is cost effective because the solution offers the lowest cost of ownership compared to competing solutions:
• Integration with Cisco integrated services routers can lower operating expenses by up to 70 percent.
• Support costs are 50 to 60 percent less than those for competitive offerings.
• Cisco WAAS can decrease the centralized server load by up to 90 percent through advanced caching and proxy capabilities, thereby reducing the number of file, print, software distribution, and video servers needed and lowering power, cooling, and space requirements.
• Cisco WAAS eliminates the need for bandwidth upgrades and complex configuration for widescale delivery of live video.
• Cisco WAAS virtual blades provide local hosting with centralized deployment for Windows- and Linux-based branch-office services while reducing the branch-office device footprint.
• Integration into the existing WAN architecture complements Cisco IOS® Software features such as QoS and Performance Routing (PfR), reducing WAN bandwidth costs.
Q. How does Cisco WAAS improve data protection and regulatory compliance?
A. Cisco WAAS protects data in the following ways:
• Improved regulatory compliance and business continuity by centralizing data protection in the data center and accelerating backups over the WAN
• Application vendor-validated designs that are jointly published, significantly lowering the risk of WAN optimization deployment; proprietary application protocols are licensed to provide application-specific acceleration optimization, and unlike some WAN optimization vendors, Cisco does not use reverse engineering of proprietary application protocols, which may break the applications
• Protection for data at rest through advanced encryption technology
• Protection for data in flight through integration with WAN security technologies such as Cisco firewalls (Cisco IOS Firewall, ASA 5500 Series Enterprise Firewall Edition, PIX Firewall Software, and Catalyst 6500 Series Firewall Services Module [FWSM]).
• Increased compliance support through Cisco WAAS testing with major industry security standards, including Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15408 and Payment Card Industry (PCI) 1.1 compliance
• Comprehensive role-based access control (RBAC) to help ensure secure management capability in large cross-functional organizations
What is new in WAAS version 4.1?
Q. Does Cisco WAAS 4.1 have any features that Cisco Wide Area File Services Software (WAFS) does not offer?
A. Cisco WAFS is an industry-leading solution that accelerates file-based applications and data, helping customers consolidate file servers from their branch offices.
Cisco WAAS contains a richer superset of the functions found in Cisco WAFS, and it effectively replaces Cisco WAFS going forward (existing Cisco WAFS customers under contract will be entitled to a free Cisco WAAS Software upgrade).
Cisco WAAS is a comprehensive WAN optimization solution that accelerates a wide range of applications over the WAN, delivers video to the branch office, and provides local hosting of branch-office IT services. It allows IT departments to centralize applications and storage in the data center while maintaining LAN-like application performance, enabling locally hosted IT services while reducing the overall branch-office device footprint.
Cisco WAAS 4.1 contains a full implementation of the industry-leading Cisco WAFS product, plus a range of sophisticated application-specific and generic optimizations as well as virtualization capabilities.
Q. What enhancements does Cisco WAAS 4.1 add compared to those in Cisco WAAS 4.0?
A. Cisco WAAS 4.1 expands the broad set of Cisco WAAS benefits, which now include:
• Ease-of-deployment for initial use and streamlined management for ongoing operations: Cisco WAAS 4.1 simplifies deployment by using automation to eliminate many configuration steps. It also offers a quickstart wizard for faster deployment. Cisco WAAS 4.1 enhances ease of operation with a revised management user interface that includes customizable reporting, new diagnostic and troubleshooting tools, intuitive workflow-based management, and real-time monitoring. Cisco WAAS 4.1 also offers an XML API for integration into customers' network management and monitoring systems.
• Improved user experience through new application-specific acceleration: Cisco WAAS 4.1 provides application-specific acceleration, developed and validated with application vendors, for Microsoft Exchange; HTTP applications such as Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft SharePoint applications; and Windows print and UNIX NFS services. Intellectual property rights (IPR) licensing of proprietary protocols and joint support agreements with major application vendors helps ensure high performance, excellent interoperability, and operational coverage.
• Widescale delivery of live video by eliminating bandwidth upgrades and complex configuration: Cisco WAAS 4.1 enables widescale delivery of high-quality live video to branch offices by offering automated edge-stream splitting that helps ensure that only one video stream is downloaded over the WAN regardless of the number of users in the branch office viewing that stream. This feature usually eliminates the need for WAN upgrades to deliver live streaming video to the branch office. The automation feature eliminates the complex configuration that is required in traditional video delivery systems. The solution also offers server offload capability that often provides a 10X reduction in the number of data center video servers.
• Flexible delivery of branch office IT services through local hosting while reducing the device footprint: Cisco WAAS 4.1 enables flexible delivery of branch-office IT services while reducing the device footprint. Its network-embedded virtualization enables hosting of third-party services on isolated virtual blades. This architecture maintains native performance for WAN optimization, while using the same hardware platform for additional hosted services. The first set of certified and supported hosted services includes Windows Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and print as part of Windows Server 2008 core services. The virtual blades feature can be used to deploy many different Windows and Linux branch-office services on the Cisco WAAS appliances within a few hours instead of the days or weeks often required for dedicated hardware-based deployments. Cisco will extend its set of validated services and offer customers a process to validate their own custom applications as well.
Q. How does Cisco WAAS 4.1 improve the delivery of high-quality video to the branch office?
A. Cisco WAAS 4.1 enables widescale delivery of high-quality live video to branch offices by offering automated edge-stream splitting that helps ensure that only one video stream is downloaded over the WAN, regardless of the number of end users in the branch office viewing that stream. This feature often eliminates the need for WAN upgrades to deliver live streaming video to the branch office. The automation feature eliminates the complex configuration that is required in traditional video delivery systems such as multicast-enabled WANs. Cisco WAAS 4.1 supports delivery of live video from Windows Media Server to Windows desktops in the branch office. Cisco WAAS 4.1 continues to provide the Cisco WAAS 4.0 offering of local delivery of video on demand (VoD) by using its file pre-positioning capabilities over the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol.
Q. How can Cisco WAAS 4.1 reduce the branch-office device footprint compared to Cisco WAAS 4.0?
A. Cisco 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. It enables IT departments to centralize applications and storage in the data center while maintaining LAN-like application performance and to rapidly deliver local branch-office IT services while reducing the branch-office device footprint.
With Cisco WAAS 4.0, IT departments could consolidate applications and infrastructure such as file, print, and software distribution servers into centrally managed data centers while providing LAN-like application performance for branch office and mobile users.
However, many organizations require the flexibility to keep their crucial IT infrastructure services in the branch office so that they are available even if the WAN goes down. Some examples include Microsoft Active Directory for user authentication, DNS and DHCP services for address resolution and dynamic addressing, and print servers for faster throughput over the LAN than over the WAN. This strategy, however, results in additional servers in the branch office, increasing management costs and requiring an expensive major equipment upgrade for server-based delivery of any future branch-office IT or application service.
The addition of network-embedded virtualization capabilities in Cisco WAAS 4.1 enables hosting of third-party services on isolated virtual blades, allowing flexible delivery of branch-office IT services while reducing the device footprint. The architecture maintains native performance for WAN optimization while using the same hardware platform for additional hosted services. It results in capital expenditure (CapEx) and support savings on server appliances and eliminates the need for expensive major equipment upgrades for future branch-office services.
Thus, Cisco WAAS 4.1 gives organizations the flexibility to adopt a hybrid strategy of both consolidation and localization of servers according to their requirements without increasing the device footprint. The first set of certified and supported hosted services includes Windows Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and print as part of Windows Server 2008 core services. Together with Microsoft, Cisco has developed the optimized branch-office architecture along with joint escalation support agreements for a total solution instead of just product features like other WAN Optimization vendors.
The virtual blades feature can be used to deploy many different Windows and Linux branch services on the Cisco WAAS appliances within a few hours instead of the days or weeks often required for dedicated hardware-based deployments. Cisco will extend its set of validated services and offer customers a process to validate their own custom applications over time.
Q. Does Cisco WAAS 4.1 support any branch-office services in addition to Windows 2008 Server services?
A. Together with Microsoft, Cisco has developed the optimized branch-office architecture, which includes a jointly validated design, thoroughly integrated and tested configuration, and joint escalation support agreements for a total solution instead of delivering just product features like other WAN Optimization vendors.
The first set of certified and supported hosted services for Cisco WAAS 4.1 includes Windows Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and print as part of Windows Server 2008 core services.
Consistent with this approach, Cisco will extend its set of validated services and offer customers a process to validate their own custom applications over time.
Q. What benefits does Cisco WAAS 4.1 Central Manager provide?
A. Cisco WAAS Central manager is a scalable, secure platform that provides intuitive configuration, monitoring, and management services for Cisco WAAS deployment. Cisco WAAS 4.1 enhances the ease of ongoing operations with a revised management user interface that includes customizable reporting, new diagnostic and troubleshooting tools, intuitive workflow-based management, and real-time monitoring of connections. Cisco WAAS 4.1 also offers an XML API to enable integration into customers' network management and monitoring systems.
For organizations that have Cisco WAAS 4.0 deployed, Cisco WAAS 4.1 Central Manager enables smooth migration to Cisco WAAS 4.1 on demand, as it can manage and monitor Cisco WAAS devices with both Cisco WAAS 4.0 and 4.1.
Q. What reporting features are available in Cisco WAAS 4.1?
A. Cisco WAAS 4.1 Central Manager extends the previously available monitoring capabilities of Cisco WAAS 4.0 Central Manager, allowing administrators and users to access predefined reports, customize reports, and set up reports based on their privileges, which can be managed using the expanded RBAC function. With Cisco WAAS 4.1, consolidated reports can be generated for a single device, for a group of devices, and for the whole deployment. The scheduled reports are autogenerated and sent out by email on a scheduled basis without requiring Cisco WAAS Central Manager login.
Q. What are the usability enhancements in Cisco WAAS 4.1?
Cisco WAAS 4.1 enables ease-of-deployment for both initial and ongoing operations.
Cisco WAAS 4.1 simplifies initial deployment by using automation to eliminate many configuration steps. It also offers a quickstart wizard for faster deployment.
Cisco WAAS 4.1 enhances the ease of ongoing operations with a revised management user interface that includes customizable reporting, new diagnostic and troubleshooting tools, intuitive workflow-based management, and real-time monitoring. Cisco WAAS 4.1 also offers an XML API for integration into customers' network management and monitoring systems.
The new Cisco WAAS Central Manager GUI introduces a modern, standard Cisco look and feel, with task-based navigation and context-aware menus. Users can customize the system and device dashboards with their own flexible queries to personalize the interaction, improve efficiency, and reduce learning time.
Q. Does Cisco WAAS offer user-specific access to reports and configuration settings?
A. The Cisco WAAS Central Manager allows the central management system to be provisioned so that administrative groups have control only over the portions of the Cisco WAAS topology that they need. By using RBAC, a Cisco WAAS administrator can define administrative users, roles, and domains to specify the areas of the Cisco WAAS Central Manager that users can view and control. User accounts and credentials can be either stored locally on each Cisco WAE or authenticated using a third-party authentication service such as TACACS, RADIUS, or Microsoft Active Directory. Cisco WAAS 4.1 expands these capabilities to provision of read-only privileges for both devices and device groups.
Managed Cisco WAAS
Q. What benefits does the managed Cisco WAAS service offer to service providers?
A. Managed Cisco WAAS increases profitability, enhances competitive differentiation, and increases customer loyalty. Managed Cisco WAAS supports service growth in the data center.
Q. How does managed Cisco WAAS increase profitability?
A. Service providers can offer managed Cisco WAAS alongside their existing managed router and managed security business and take advantage of the existing infrastructure and processes, thus reducing TCO.
Q. How does managed Cisco WAAS enhance competitive differentiation?
A. Managed Cisco WAAS strengthens service providers' value propositions by allowing them to focus on application performance instead of simply offering connections.
Q. How does managed Cisco WAAS increase customer loyalty?
A. Managed Cisco WAAS increases customer loyalty by increasing application performance, making the service provider critical to the business.
Q. What benefits does managed Cisco WAAS offer to organizations?
A. The managed Cisco WAAS service provides all the benefits of Cisco WAAS without the initial costs of obtaining and installing the equipment and the costs of ongoing management, allowing the organization to focus on its core business.
