About Cisco Secure Workload Software Appliance

Overview

Cisco Secure Workload is now available as a software appliance, allowing deployment in customer-managed datacenters. The software appliance delivers the same features as the hardware appliance, so you gain more flexibility and scalability. You can use Secure Workload in private or public cloud environments, which makes it easier to adopt the solution. The platform is designed to deliver consistent performance and security by leveraging enterprise-grade storage and standardized networking policies.

Secure Workload Software Appliances

Benefits of Secure Workload Software Appliances

  • Infrastructure Independence: Decouples the software stack from specific hardware requirements. This allows deployment on customer-provided servers, private and public clouds.

  • Leverages Existing Customer Infrastructure & Expertise: Customers can utilize their existing data centers, servers, enterprise-grade storage systems, standardized networking, and internal expertise in maintaining such environments.

  • Accelerated Deployment: Streamlines the Proof of Value (PoV) process by removing hardware shipping and installation delays. Customers can transition PoV clusters directly into production environments, significantly reducing time-to-value.

  • Resource Optimization: Eliminates the overhead of idle resources found in fixed hardware form factors. The software appliance model allows for precise allocation of CPU, memory, and storage, improving overall data center efficiency

  • Simplified Lifecycle Management: Facilitates continuous software and security updates without requiring cluster rebuilds.

Licensing

Clusters on this platform are restricted to a 30-day trial license when deployed. After 30 days, the cluster will stop processing new data, but the user interface and data collected and processed when the cluster was active will still be accessible. To avoid service disruption, you must apply valid licensing before the evaluation period expires. For more information, see the online help/user guide in the Cisco Secure Workload web portal.

Comparison of Secure Workload software and hardware appliances

The following table compares the key features of Secure Workload hardware and software appliances:

Table 1. Software vs hardware appliances

Feature

Hardware Appliance

Software Appliance
Form Factor Uses fixed physical 8RU or 39RU units Employs virtualized OVA packages
Infrastructure Requires dedicated Cisco UCS servers Operates on customer-managed virtual environments
Scalability Limits capacity to the physical chassis Enables on-demand horizontal scaling
Management Necessitates manual physical maintenance Automates provisioning through an Infrastructure Manager
Responsibility Cisco maintains the entire stack Customers manage underlying compute and storage
Storage Relies on internal SAS or SSD drives Utilizes shared enterprise datastores like vSAN or iSCSI
Lifecycle Follows UCS refresh cycles Decouples the application from hardware lifecycles
Deployment Requires physical racking and cabling Allows for rapid virtual machine provisioning

For infromation on how to migrate from hardware to software appliances, see Best practice for migrating to Software Appliance.