Introduction

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.

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.

Key differences between hardware and software appliance models

While both the hardware and software versions of Cisco Secure Workload provide the same core security capabilities, they differ significantly in how they are hosted and managed. The table below outlines the key technical distinctions between these two deployment models.

Table 1. Hardware vs. Software Appliance

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

Best practice for migrating to Software Appliance

Follow these best practices when migrating from Hardware to the Secure Workload Software Appliance.

  • Upgrade the existing hardware appliance to Secure Workload Release 4.0 before starting the migration process.

  • Ensure that the software appliance cluster is also running Secure Workload Release 4.0 to guarantee compatibility during data transfer.

  • Use the Data Backup and Restore mechanism to migrate your configurations.

  • Monitor migration progress through the Infrastructure Management status panels, and frequently review operational logs to identify and resolve any issues during virtual machine provisioning.