Cisco Systems® announces the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for the Cisco® PIX Firewall VPN Accelerator Card (VAC). The last day to order the affected product is May 15, 2006. Customers with active service contracts will continue to receive support from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) until May 30, 2011. Table 1 describes the end-of-life milestones, definitions, and dates for the affected product. Table 2 lists the product part numbers affected by this announcement.
Customers are encouraged to migrate to the Cisco PIX VPN Accelerator Card+ (VAC+), which delivers exceptional VPN performance of up to four times more encrypted throughput than this end-of-saled Cisco PIX VAC on the Cisco PIX 515E, 525, and 535 Security Appliances. Information about the replacement product can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_data_sheets_list.html.
Table 3 provides relevant information for migrating to the replacement product.
Table 1. End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco PIX Firewall VPN Accelerator Card
Milestone
Definition
Date
End-of-life announcement date
The date the document that announces the end of sale and end of life of a product is distributed to the general public.
April 7, 2006
End-of-sale date
The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale after this date.
May 15, 2006
Last shipment date
The last-possible ship date that can be requested of Cisco and/or its contract manufacturers. Actual ship date is dependent on lead time.
June 1, 2006
End of software maintenance releases date
The last date that Cisco Engineering may release any final software maintenance releases or bug fixes. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the product software.
May 30, 2007
End of routine failure analysis date
The last-possible date a routine failure analysis may be performed to determine the cause of product failure or defect.
May 30, 2007
End of new service attachment date
For equipment and software that is not covered by a service-and-support contract, this is the last date to order a new service-and-support contract or add the equipment and/or software to an existing service-and-support contract.
May 30, 2007
End of service contract renewal date
The last date to extend or renew a service contract for the product.
November 30, 2010
Last date of support
The last date to receive service and support for the product. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete.
May 30, 2011
Table 2. Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement
The recommended replacement for the Cisco PIX VAC is the Cisco PIX VAC+ (Table 3). The Cisco PIX VAC+ unlocks the full VPN potential of Cisco PIX Security Appliances and offers customers a high-performance, feature-rich and easy-to-deploy VPN solution. The Cisco PIX VAC+ delivers a number of important benefits, including:
• Exceptional VPN Performance - Up to four times more encrypted throughput than the Cisco PIX VAC
• Enhanced Security - High-performance hardware acceleration of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), the latest international cryptographic standard
• Higher Scalability - Faster VPN connection setup times with remote offices, business partners, or mobile users
• Improved Services Availability - Lower system CPU utilization allows customers to take full advantage of the broad range of security and network services in Cisco PIX Security Appliance Software version 6.3
Table 3. Product Comparisons
Feature
Cisco PIX VAC
Cisco PIX VAC+
Data Encryption Standard (DES) 56-bit, Triple DES (3DES) 168-bit
Yes
Yes
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-, 192-, and 256-bit
No
Yes
Minimum Cisco PIX Software version
6.2(2)
6.3(1)
List Price
$3,750
$3,750
Table 4 shows the VPN performance advantages that the Cisco PIX VAC+ provides over the Cisco PIX VAC for large packet sizes. A detail performance comparison is available in the Cisco PIX VAC+ data sheet.
Table 4. Product Performance Comparison
Feature
Cisco PIX VAC
Cisco PIX VAC+
Cisco PIX 515E IPSec VPN Performance*
3DES (168-bit)
46 Mbps
95 Mbps
AES (256-bit)
Not supported
95 Mbps
Cisco PIX 525 IPSec VPN Performance*
3DES (168-bit)
53 Mbps
125 Mbps
AES (256-bit)
Not supported
110 Mbps
Cisco PIX 535 IPSec VPN Performance*
3DES (168-bit)
61 Mbps
265 Mbps
AES (256-bit)
Not supported
290 Mbps
* Large packet size
Customers requiring Common Criteria EAL4+ certified software are recommended to use Cisco PIX Software 7.0.4 once this software release completes the certification process. The progress of this certification can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/go/securitycert.
Customers can use the Cisco Technology Migration Plan (TMP) to trade in products and receive credit toward the purchase of new Cisco equipment. For more information about Cisco TMP, go to: http://www.cisco.com/go/tradein/. The Cisco TMP application requires all users to have a Cisco.com user ID.
