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Cisco Router and Security Device Manager 2.5 User’s Guide
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Wide Area Application Services
Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) is a WAN optimization and
application acceleration solution that enables branch office server consolidation,
improves performance for centralized applications, and provides remote users
with LAN-like access to applications, storage, and content across the WAN.
The WAAS solution has three major components:
•Wide Area Engine Edge—(WAE - E ). The edge WAE is installed on clients. It
is a file caching device that serves client requests at remote sites and branch
offices. The device is deployed at each branch office or remote campus,
replacing file servers and print servers, giving local clients fast, near-LAN
read and write access to a cached view of data residing at a remote data center.
•Wide Area Engine Core—(WAE - C ). The core WAE component is installed on
a server at the data center. It connects directly to one or more file servers or
network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Core WAEs are placed between the
file servers at the data center and the WAN that connects the data center to the
enterprise’s remote sites and branch offices. Requests that are received from
edge WAEs are translated by the core WAE into the original file server
protocol and forwarded to the appropriate file server. The core WAEs at the
data center can provide load balancing and failover support.
•Web Cache Communication Protocol—(WCCP). This is a Cisco protocol that
specifies interactions between one or more routers or Layer 3 switches, and
one or more application appliances, web caches, and caches of other
protocols. The purpose of the interaction is to establish and maintain the
transparent redirection of selected types of traffic flowing through a group of
routers to a group of appliances. Any type of TCP traffic can be redirected.