Deploying Cisco Wide Area Application Services, Second Edition

Chapter 2. Cisco WAAS Architecture, Hardware, and Sizing

Chapter 1, “Introduction to Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS),” introduced the performance challenges created by the wide-area network (WAN) and how they are addressed by the Cisco WAAS solution. Cisco WAAS is a software component that is resident on a hardware device deployed at each location with users and servers. This hardware device, which can be deployed as a router-integrated network module for the Integrated Services Router (ISR) or as an appliance, is named either Cisco Wide-Area Application Engine (WAE) or Cisco Wide-Area Virtualization Engine (WAVE). The distinction between the two is that a WAVE device, available only as an appliance, can also provide branch office ...