Cisco ACE to Nginx

This ebook provides step-by-step instructions on replacing Cisco ACE with Nginx and off-the-shelf servers. Nginx helps you cut costs and modernize.

Cisco entered the hardware load balancer market with an add-on "Application Control Engine" (ACE) module for its Catalyst 6500-series switches, the Cisco ACE30. Soon after they released the Cisco ACE 4710 as a stand-alone hardware appliance. The ACE line was doing well for Cisco with a $50 million run rate. But in 2012, Cisco abruptly announced end-of-life for the CIsco ACE.

This migration guide explains how to replace Cisco ACE hardware appliances using Nginx and Nginx Plus. Nginx is an open source load balancer, content cache, and web server. Nginx Plus is commercial and fully supported product, with exclusive features such as HTTP health checks, session persistence (what Cisco ACE calls HTTP Cookie stickiness), and high availability (HA). Because of its enhanced features, Nginx Plus is usually the better choice when replacing Cisco ACE.