10/17/2005 -- Cisco Systems last week announced new Web application accelerators for data center and branch office environments. Cisco’s new Web app appliances incorporate technology Cisco acquired in May from the former FineGround Networks, a privately owned company that specialized in application delivery management.

Some of Cisco’s new Web app appliances are rebadged versions of former FineGround products -- tweaked for interoperability with Cisco’s own technologies, such as its load-balancing appliances and Catalyst 6000 Series switches. The new data center appliances, dubbed Application Velocity System (AVS), are the AVS 3180 and AVS 3120. They’re both designed to accelerate HTML and XML traffic over both HTTP and HTTPS transports.

Cisco also announced new appliances for remote or branch offices, included as part of its Wide-area Application Engine (WAE) product line. The WAE appliances consolidate Cisco’s Wide Area File Services (WAFS) and Application and Content Networking System (ACNS). The new appliances, which include the WAE-511, WAE-611 and WAE-7326, are designed to accelerate file sharing, backup and content management. Cisco says WAE is also offered as a network module for the Cisco integrated services routers.

At the time it acquired FineGround in May, Cisco disclosed plans to integrate that company’s technology with the rest of its technology stack -- which could ultimately result in native IOS support for network application monitoring and application delivery acceleration. -Stephen Swoyer