Cisco announces the Web Application Features for the ACE module

“Today, Cisco is extending its solution for Application Networking Services (ANS)-Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) family of products-with the addition of the Cisco ACE Web Application Firewall. The main component of this solution is the ACE Web Application Firewall appliance in a convenient 1 RU form factor that provides a full-proxy firewall solution for both HTML and XML-based Web applications.. ACE Web Application Firewall solution also includes the ACE Web Application Firewall Manager, a secure, Web-based application for security policy creation and monitoring. The Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) family of products represents the next generation of application switching and Web services solutions for maximizing availability, acceleration and protection of data center applications.”

This changes the way I will design data centres. The ability to use an ACE module to be a load balancer, SSL termination, protocol firewall and now application firewall means that this is very flexible tool. And with the virtualisation features, it can even be cost effective. I had a look for the documentation but it hasn’t been posted yet so can’t comment on how the features look.

Also impacted is those companies that have been attempting to create a market for XML firewalls. This market will now be closed to new players and I would expect several of the current players will be look for merger partners.

Cisco ACE Web Application Firewall – Products & Services – Cisco Systems: “”