CISCO LIFECYCLE SERVICES FOR CISCO WAAS WIDE AREA APPLICATION SERVICES DEPLOYMENTS
Cisco® Lifecycle Services for Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) are designed to facilitate adoption of Cisco WAAS in the customer environment. Cisco WAAS incorporates WAN optimization and application-specific acceleration techniques to help enterprises consolidate remote-office infrastructure, optimize WAN use, and improve application responsiveness. Although migration of costly and difficult-to-manage branch-office servers and data-protection infrastructure can initially require integration activity, the results are reduced costs and improved manageability. The use of advanced compression and TCP flow optimization can also help optimize expensive resources such as the WAN, so that applications (for example, e-mail, enterprise resource planning [ERP], and Web applications) experience enhanced performance and optimized TCP flow. Cisco WAAS transparently integrates into the packet network, preserving features such as quality of service (QoS), Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR), access control lists (ACLs), Cisco IOS® NetFlow, and firewall policies. Cisco Advanced Services for Cisco WAAS are designed to assist customers through the entire lifecycle of a deployment. This approach reduces risk and accelerates adoption of Cisco WAAS and helps deliver the application performance that enterprises require to stay competitive.
WHY CISCO?
Cisco Advanced Services engineers typically hold Cisco CCIE® certification and they specialize in data center and application optimization technologies. They have direct experience in planning, designing, and supporting Cisco WAAS on myriad large-scale IP and WAN infrastructures. Their product and technology expertise is constantly enhanced by hands-on experience with real-life networks and broad exposure to the latest technology and implementations. With the help of specialized tools, regular quarterly site visits, weekly status conference calls, and continuous communication, Cisco data center networking experts build an in-depth knowledge of your application performance requirements and business objectives. This knowledge helps the Cisco Advanced Services engineering team become a highly effective liaison between your organization and the wealth of technical expertise and intellectual property at Cisco Systems®.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
Cisco Lifecycle Services for Cisco WAAS offer a range of services to meet customers' specific requirements. Services include remote-office assessment and migration (ROAM) assistance, detailed design development and reviews, and implementation and migration assistance. These services are designed to help customers plan the infrastructure that addresses their specific application requirements. Cisco offers both transactional and subscription services for Cisco WAAS to provide maximum flexibility to customers to aid in their deployments. Transactional service deliverables can be customized to fit different types of customer environments whereas subscription services are priced for various installed base sizes and provide set deliverables.
Transactional Services for Cisco WAAS
Transactional services for Cisco WAAS are designed so that customers can select the services and deliverables they need to meet their unique requirements. This approach provides maximum flexibility while delivering a breadth of services. Table 1 summarizes the transactional services Cisco offers for Cisco WAAS.
Table 1. Cisco WAAS Detailed Design Development
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Discovery and Analysis
Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers conduct onsite discovery sessions to gather data and start the detailed design development process. Cisco Advanced Services engineers:
• Review and analyze existing infrastructure documentation and requirements, if available
• Collect and review Cisco WAAS technical requirements and design goals for integration into the low-level design (LLD)
• Verify that the chosen platforms, features, and functions meet the design objectives
Low Level Design Development
Develop an implementation-ready LLD document, which typically includes:
• Requirements analysis and findings collected during the discovery and analysis activity
• Cisco WAAS logical and physical topology
• Scalability and redundancy considerations
• Security considerations
• Recommended features and functions
• Software version referral
• Configuration templates covering all the Cisco devices required for a working Cisco WAAS solution
• Integrates technical requirements and design goals into your Cisco WAAS infrastructure design with the leadership of Cisco experts using proven design principles
• Accelerates the adoption of Cisco WAAS technology through knowledge exchange and application of leading practices to Cisco WAAS design principles
• Minimizes expensive, time-consuming, and intrusive redesign by facilitating proper design early in the lifecycle
• Improves staff proficiency through continuous knowledge exchange with Cisco design experts
• Proactively improves the performance, resiliency, and availability of your Cisco WAAS infrastructure
Table 2. Cisco WAAS Detailed Design Review
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers review existing Cisco WAAS deployments or provide a detailed review of a customer-provided Cisco WAAS design. Cisco Advanced Services engineers:
• Verify that the chosen platform, features, and functions meet the design objectives
• Review the customer-provided LLD to verify that it integrates the technical requirements and design goals
• Review the configuration to verify conformance with Cisco best practices
• Assess and validate the scalability and design limitations of the LLD
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve design performance, security, and availability
• Verifies that your technical requirements and design goals are integrated into your Cisco WAAS design through the use of proven design principles
• Accelerates the adoption of Cisco WAAS technology through knowledge exchange and application of leading practices to Cisco WAAS design principles
• Minimizes expensive, time-consuming, and intrusive redesign by facilitating proper design early in the lifecycle
• Improves staff proficiency through continuous knowledge exchange with Cisco design experts
• Proactively improves the performance, resiliency, and availability of your Cisco WAAS infrastructure
Table 3. Cisco WAAS Implementation Plan Review
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers:
• Review Cisco WAAS deployment plans to help minimize deployment time and service disruption
• Review and analyze Cisco WAAS deployment plans and strategy and integrate them into the existing infrastructure
• Review installation and commissioning of test plans
• Analyze any changes that operations staff should know about
• Provide an Implementation Plan Review report
• Accelerates successful Cisco WAAS implementation by taking advantage of Cisco leading practices that help you avoid potential problems
• Improves your ability to meet an aggressive deployment schedule
• Proactively identifies potential risks to help minimize disruption to the existing infrastructure during deployment
• Potentially reduces the duration of maintenance windows
• Helps ensure that your Cisco WAAS implementation plan is complete and that it contains the critical elements required for a predictable, successful deployment
Table 4. Cisco WAAS Remote Deployment Support
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers:
• Provide scheduled remote deployment support for critical deployment activities
• Participate in periodic customer project status and update conference calls
• Promptly address and escalate deployment-related technical problems
• Proactively notify customer about any identified technical problems that could affect the deployment
• Accelerates the identification, escalation, and resolution of deployment-related concerns
• Significantly reduces the potential effect of problems on your deployment schedule and Cisco WAAS stability
• Reduces the possibility of deployment errors and costly delays
• Allows you to take advantage of the wealth of Cisco expertise gained as a result of similar deployments
• Gives you the security of knowing that the entire Cisco team is focused on helping you achieve your business goals
Table 5. Cisco WAAS Migration Plan Development
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Cisco Advanced Services engineers provide a detailed migration plan, which typically includes:
• Step-by-step procedures required for successful migration from Cisco Wide Area File Services (WAFS) Software or Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) Software to Cisco WAAS.
• Hardware resource assessments and recommendations
• Migration planning and lab validation
• Recommended migration sequence and scheduling
• Assessment of the effect on the existing Cisco WAFS or Cisco ACNS environment
• Strengthens the ability of your team to meet aggressive deployment schedules
• Reduces the risks associated with a production migration
• Helps you take advantage of Cisco planning experience and best-in-class methods and procedures in migrating to Cisco WAAS
• Reduces the possibility of downtime or other costly disruptions during migration
• Reduces the possibility of expensive, time-consuming rework at a later date
Table 6. Cisco WAAS Migration Plan Review
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers:
• Review Cisco WAAS migration plans to help minimize deployment time and service disruption
• Review hardware resources and identify upgrades and configuration changes required for successful migration
• Review the migration sequence and scheduling
• Assess the effect on the existing Cisco WAFS or Cisco ACNS environment
• Provide a Migration Plan Review report
• Strengthens the ability of your team to meet aggressive deployment schedules
• Reduces the risks associated with a production migration
• Helps you take advantage of Cisco planning experience and best-in-class methods and procedures in migrating to Cisco WAAS
• Reduces the possibility of downtime or other costly disruptions during migration
• Reduces the possibility of expensive, time-consuming rework at a later date
Table 7. Cisco WAAS Post-Deployment and Ongoing Optimization Support
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
This service provides ongoing Cisco Advanced Services support for your Cisco WAAS infrastructure, including:
• Proactive notification and impact analysis of relevant severity 1 and 2 defects
• Proactive notification and impact analysis of relevant Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) advisories
• Ongoing Cisco WAAS Software referrals based on the addition of new features to the customer's environment or the release of new Cisco WAAS Software
• Ongoing architecture and design consultations related to the Cisco WAAS infrastructure
• Ongoing remote configuration assistance on a prescheduled basis
• Helps improve the stability, performance, and security of your Cisco WAAS deployment
• Helps reduce Cisco WAAS operating costs and enhance reliability by identifying potential performance problems and making recommendations to address them
• Helps your engineering team identify potential configuration problems and resolve them before they become major problems
Table 8. Cisco WAAS Pilot Deployment Support (Presales)
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Cisco Advanced Services engineers provide remote deployment and configuration support for customers assessing the use of Cisco WAAS in their environment. Support provided by this service is limited to the following:
• Reactive configuration and troubleshooting support
• Assistance in reviewing customer-provided test plans
• Communication of Cisco best practices regarding Cisco WAAS design and deployment
• Assistance with solution sizing
• Early identification of potential design or deployment problems
• Knowledge transfer and mentoring
• Facilitates a successful pilot deployment through the use of Cisco best-practices configuration and deployment guidelines
• Helps reduce the risk associated with a pilot deployment
• Identifies additional opportunities to use Cisco WAAS in your environment
• Provides critical knowledge exchange from Cisco WAAS experts to reduce the initial learning curve
Table 9. Cisco WAAS Pilot Deployment Support (Postsales)
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Cisco Advanced Services engineers provide remote deployment and configuration support for customers performing a pilot deployment of Cisco WAAS in their environment. Through this service, Cisco Advanced Services engineers typically:
• Provide reactive configuration, deployment, and troubleshooting support
• Assist with the development of pilot testing and implementation plans
• Communicate Cisco best practices for Cisco WAAS design and deployment
• Recommend performance and configuration optimizations
• Test and provide lab validation of customer-specific scenarios
• Provide knowledge transfer and mentoring
• Facilitates a successful pilot deployment through the use of Cisco best-practices configuration and deployment guidelines
• Helps reduce the risk associated with a pilot deployment
• Identifies additional opportunities to use Cisco WAAS in your environment
• Provides critical knowledge exchange from Cisco WAAS experts to reduce the initial learning curve
Subscription Services for Cisco WAAS
Cisco offers the network optimization services (NOS) extension for data center networking (DCN). Customers can purchase this service for Cisco WAAS using the DCN-Caching option. This subscription service provides support for Cisco WAAS and Cisco WAFS solutions and addresses ongoing requirements for these deliverables in a postsales environment. A customer must subscribe to the base NOS service to acquire the NOS extension for DCN. Table 2 summarizes the deliverables offered by this service.
Table 10. Design Support
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Cisco Advanced Services engineers provide a combination of onsite and remote support to address customers' ongoing requirements for design of Cisco WAAS devices in an operating environment. Support associated with this service typically includes:
• Detailed Design report
• Design consultation
• Promotes design consistency
• Promotes continuity in design development within a consistent framework to help ensure that business and technical requirements are met
• Facilitates integration of new devices through the use of a consistent structure and set of methodologies
• Easier manageability due to consistency of design
Table 11. Performance Engineering and Optimization
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
Customers often make changes to their live environments, and many of these changes are evolutionary. These environments benefit from ongoing optimization to achieve the maximum return on investment. To address that requirement, this service provides:
• Performance Engineering and Optimization report
• Collects useful data to better understand the operating environment
• Provides insight into the performance data and the tuning parameters needed to achieve the desired metrics
Table 12. Software Strategy
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
This service helps customers with an ongoing software strategy accommodate any change in requirements. It typically provides the following deliverables:
• Software Strategy Update report
• Software Recommendation report
• Software Infrastructure Analysis report
• Proactive Critical Bug Analysis report
• Software Security Alert report
• Provides version control to reduce the risk from adoption of new features and minimizes instability in the operating environment
• Proactively manages bugs to preempt any problems
• Proactively manages any potential problems in the live network environment
Table 13. Knowledge Transfer and Mentoring
Activities and Deliverables
Benefits
This service provides the following support:
• Ongoing knowledge transfer and mentoring
• Gives you access to subject matter experts (SMEs) to train operation staff
• Provides access to the expertise of engineers who have experience in deploying Cisco WAAS at other customer sites
• Gives you access to Cisco resources and libraries
CISCO WAAS TECHNOLOGIES AND PRODUCTS
Cisco Advanced Services for Cisco WAAS can help customers plan a consolidated network and application infrastructure. Customers can plan for and deploy centralized management and use of protected data without compromising performance. Cisco services facilitate access to applications, rich media, and file content at the branch office and help consolidate branch servers in the data center. These services support the following products:
• Cisco WAAS
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Cisco Services for the Data Center, contact your local Cisco account representative.
