White Paper

Unlocking the Potential of Cloud Computing with Cisco Application

Performance Management

Introduction
To meet new needs in today’s challenging IT and telecommunications services marketplace, enterprises and Small
and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) alike are turning to cloud-based computing. The underlying new operational
model promises to improve the agility, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of IT. This market is soaring as service
providers step in to support customers’ migration to virtualized, cloud-based environments. According to Forrester
Research, the market for managed data center services will grow to $116.5 billion worldwide by 2014. Computing
services (Infrastructure as-a-Service and Software as-a-Service) are expected to experience a compound annual
growth rate of more than 15 percent1.

Enterprises and their service providers also face new challenges, however, as they seek to deliver applications from
the cloud to remote sites. To reap the benefits of cloud computing, organizations need end-to-end visibility into
®
application performance, as well as an ability to manage application performance. Cisco Application Performance
Management (APM) technologies enable service providers and their customers to take advantage of the inherent
intelligence and power of the network, providing the visibility, optimization, and control to meet these new challenges
and unlock the full potential of cloud computing.

Escalating Customer Demands

As enterprises become more geographically dispersed, their core business applications are growing more complex.
Remote manufacturing, distributed employee sites and branch offices, larger numbers of mobile and home workers,
and an increasing mix of application suites make it challenging to derive maximum value from business applications.
As they strive to address customer needs, service providers must offer application-aware services in the form of
higher-value technology stacks (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Progression to Increasing Application Awareness and Intelligence

Source: Cisco Managed and Hosted Business Services, 2009.

1
Source: Cisco Managed Service Custom Research, Forrester Research, February, 2010.

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Improving Availability, Performance, and Security in the Cloud

Up to now, application performance and availability concerns have slowed adoption of cloud-based models.
Accessing applications remotely introduces concerns around latency, bandwidth constraints, and service downtime.
To meet customer demands, service providers must provide support for application-level Service-Level Agreements
(SLAs) such as application response time and full-feature availability.

Although cloud-based services offer tremendous potential, customers have concerns about the model, because they
require robust security for their internal network and IT assets, as well as external assets such as the public data
center and WAN. Since security architectures are cross-functional and require in-depth and up-to-date specialist
knowledge, safeguarding business resources can be challenging, especially for smaller enterprises that cannot
afford the skill set and tools required for strong security.

In a difficult economic environment, customers are also seeking to control costs. An intelligent, application-aware
network enables lower-cost application delivery using a converged infrastructure and IT technology architecture. It
lets enterprises redesign their business processes without the constraint of SLA challenges and WAN performance.
Using an intelligent, application-aware network architecture, they can enhance application response times across the
entire organization, from branch offices to mobile users and home workers.

Cisco APM can help businesses enable an intelligent, application-aware network to address concerns about
performance, availability, and security of cloud-based services. It provides the visibility organizations need to
discover applications running on the network, measure performance, and better understand network usage. And it
lets organizations optimize the WAN to improve application performance, while giving them the control they need to
safeguard and prioritize critical applications.

Service Providers Delivering Cloud-Based Applications

Traditionally, many service provider network and IT infrastructures were deployed as fragmented point solutions
using silos of dedicated infrastructure. As businesses increasingly adopt cloud-based services such as compute on
demand, bandwidth on demand, or storage on demand, however, these “stovepiped” deployments are shifting to
employment of shared resources. As enterprises move applications, computing, storage, and network resources to
the cloud, service delivery across locations and to remote users in branch offices might require more WAN hops,
with resulting performance effects. A recent report from IDC states that 60 percent of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
applications are accessed from the SaaS hosting center, then backhauled through corporate data center branch
offices (see Figure 2)2. On the one hand, this approach can give enterprises more control over application and
service delivery, utilizing Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to support secure access. On the other hand,
enterprise organizations sacrifice the ability to exercise direct control over all network links3.

2
Source: IDC Voice and Data Services Survey: IPVPN and Internet Access Trends, IDC Research, October 2008.
3
Source: Cisco Managed and Hosted Business Services, 2009.

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Figure 2. Challenges of Providing Cloud-Based Services

Source: IDC Research, 2008, Cisco Application Delivery Business Unit

In short, delivery of applications from the cloud creates challenges in:

● Provisioning: On-demand provisioning across network and IT and end-to-end SLA assurance
● Security: Segregated and end-to-end application security for optimized traffic
● Performance: Application response times for branch office, mobile, and remote usage
While this represents a technical issue for service providers, it is also a significant business opportunity. With the
right technology solution built on application-aware technology, service providers can use their customer presence
and network and service capabilities to address the growing market for cloud services.

Targeting the Market

Application-aware technology stacks will be more sophisticated in mature markets. Modular, scalable solutions,
however, will thrive in emerging markets, too. Adoption of intelligent, application-aware networks will vary by market
maturity, region, and complexity.

Where are the sweet spots for application-aware solutions? A number of applications are hosted and delivered from
cloud environments. However, not all of them benefit equally from increased application awareness. As shown in
Table 1, in situations where enterprises can experience benefits from a greenfield deployment or where the
technology architecture has the nature of a utility, application-aware solutions will gain market share quickly.
Examples of this are support systems, such as email, video, and communications, and enabling functions, such as
desktop hosting of “utility desktops.”

Today, strategy and buying decisions for IT and network tools in the enterprise are often made separately, resulting
from the siloed nature of infrastructure deployment and the supporting IT organization. An intelligent, application-
aware network environment, however, requires a more comprehensive, integrated deployment strategy. Table 1
shows selected cloud computing opportunities and how highlighted opportunities benefit from application
awareness4.

4
Source: Cisco IBSG Service Provider Practice, 2009, “Cloud Computing: Research About Enterprise Demand.”

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Table 1. Application Opportunities That Benefit from Cloud Computing

Workload Type Factors in Infrastructure as a Service Adoption Global Opportunity

Size (2013)

Application ● Short-term, unplanned resource requests from developers $4.7B

Development and ● Requirements on testing environments are very volatile
Testing

Decision Support ● Seasonal variations and short-term projects $1.2B

Systems ● Large data sets (TBs) are expensive to manage

Disaster Recovery ● DR equipment is idle and under provisioned $1.1B

Unstructured Storage ● Data volumes on file systems, wikis, and so on are affected by end users: unpredictable $1.1B

ERP Financials ● Seasonal resource demand of financial packages $0.8B

● Sunk cost of customizing financial applications

Desktop Virtualization ● Initial server investment reduces ROI of VDI projects $0.4B
● Variable utilization: temp projects and day-night fluctuations

Grid Computing ● Huge, short-term requirements: ”thousands of servers for a couple of hours” >$1B
● Noncore business for most enterprises

Source: Cisco IBSG Service Provider Practice, 2009, “Cloud Computing: Research About Enterprise Demand.”

SMBs, with limited IT staff, might be more open to reworking their business architectures and generally have the
business agility needed for change. In contrast, migrating to an intelligent, application-aware network might be more
difficult for enterprise organizations with significant legacy equipment.

Cisco APM Enables Enterprise Adoption of Cloud Services

The Cisco APM service can dramatically accelerate adoption of cloud-based services by giving service providers the
application visibility, optimization, and control they need to support today’s complex customer needs. This
architectural approach is based on existing technology that incorporates the service integration capabilities of Cisco
Integrated Services Routers (ISRs). Designed for complex, application-intensive environments, Cisco APM includes
the Cisco Wide Area Application Service (WAAS), together with application performance management capabilities
from best-in-class providers such as CA NetQoS, InfoVista, and Fluke Networks.

Cisco APM enables service providers to support enterprise business objectives by offering end-to-end visibility of the
network and applications - extending to virtual Ethernet connections used by virtual machines running on physical
servers. This enhanced visibility enables fast, effective service provisioning; optimized orchestration of application,
network, IT, and storage resources; and enhanced security over the WAN. Cisco WAAS provides innovative
solutions for the acceleration and optimization of private and public cloud–based application delivery, including SaaS
applications, while improving availability and security. Cisco APM also supports application control through
advanced, transaction-based Quality of Service (QoS) and dynamic bandwidth allocation. Cisco APM services
enable service providers to offer the services and features their customers value most (see Figure 3). And it allows
them to deliver a wide range of cloud-based services, discussed in the following examples. New research from Cisco
IBSG reveals that today's enterprise... customers place tremendous value on end-to-end SLAs for their network-
based applications5.

5
Source: Cisco IBSG Service Provider Practice, 2009, “Cloud Computing: Research About Enterprise Demand.”

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Figure 3. Differentiation Opportunities for Service Providers Offering Cloud-Based Services

Source: Cisco IBSG Service Provider Practice, 2009, “Cloud Computing: Research About Enterprise Demand.”

Scaling and Securing Public Cloud SaaS Applications

SaaS applications are especially attractive to businesses that need to control costs, because the organization does
not have to own the application and the supporting infrastructure.
®
For example, Cisco WebEx conferencing, a leading SaaS application, enables secure web conferencing,
application sharing, and other rich collaboration services. While this public cloud-based service offers flexible, on-
demand provisioning and anywhere access, it can also affect application performance and WAN utilization for
remote branch offices. Like many SaaS applications, Cisco WebEx conferencing creates individual network data
streams for user sessions, which can increase bandwidth use and limit availability.

The insertion of an on-premises Cisco WebEx node for MCS can help keep local WebEx traffic local, while Cisco
APM provides end-to-end visibility to enable providers to optimize performance and control of WebEx traffic to the
cloud. Cisco WAAS removes the redundancy in connection streams, reducing both WAN bandwidth consumption by
up to 80 percent6 and the need for costly network upgrades. To safeguard sensitive business data, Cisco WAAS
also maintains Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security while optimizing SaaS data flows.

Boosting Performance of Collaboration Applications

Collaboration tools are ideal for sharing files from productivity applications such as Microsoft Word. Since users
often upload or download the same files across the WAN, however, these applications can affect network
performance.

For instance, Microsoft SharePoint uses Portal Server workspace sites to store user documents and files. The
collaborative nature of Microsoft SharePoint creates redundant data that traverses the WAN, slowing response
times, reducing productivity, and increasing bandwidth use. For hosted Microsoft SharePoint architectures, Cisco

6
Source: Cisco Application Delivery Business Unit: Test Analysis, 2009.

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WAAS, together with real-time performance monitoring by Cisco APM, can provide WAN data compression
exceeding 80 percent, with application response time improving by a factor of three. By reducing the need for a WAN
upgrade, Cisco APM reduces total cost of ownership and helps enterprises to enhance collaboration and
productivity.

Accelerating Applications from the Private Cloud

Private cloud services let IT departments consolidate and virtualize distributed resources to scale their infrastructure,
reduce management overhead, and speed deployment. These services, however, can also strain IT resources, and
WAN latency can hamper performance for branch-office users. Cisco APM offers the visibility and WAN optimization
TCP applications require to help organizations save money, scale services better, and boost employee productivity.

For example, Cisco WAAS enhances delivery of VMware View from private clouds, improving performance by 70
percent and increasing the number of concurrent clients supported by two to four times. The solution also reduces
WAN bandwidth requirements by 60 to 70 percent and trims bandwidth use by more than 90 percent.

The visibility and intelligence provided by Cisco APM could also be used to support more advanced cloud
applications, such as a cloud VPN. An organization could utilize a network positioning system to locate resources in
the network and determine the best path and location to access those resources. A cloud VPN would then establish
secure, quality-assured VPN connections to these resources factoring in the best path, quality requirements, and
security needs.

Optimizing Disaster Recovery

As enterprise organizations move server farms and data centers to private cloud architectures, maintaining robust
business continuity and disaster recovery strategies is critical. Cisco APM provides the end-to-end application
performance monitoring and measurement to identify and mitigate issues before they affect the business. Using data
compression, Cisco WAAS helps optimize data replication to further minimize the effects of network outages

This applies in particular to enterprises that maintain more than one data center to provide high availability and to
protect against data center outages, using center replication and backup applications such as EMC SRDF/A and
NetApp SnapMirror to mirror data. Cisco WAAS has been tested and shown to accelerate and optimize the
performance of EMC SRDF/A and NetApp SnapMirror applications, creating an up to tenfold improvement in WAN
throughput performance7

Securing Data Delivered from the Cloud

As enterprises deliver services and applications from the cloud across WAN links not directly under their control,
end-to-end security is more critical than ever. For cloud providers, HTTPS is becoming the transport protocol of
choice, given industry wide adoption of the SSL standard for web applications.

Cisco WAAS extends this SSL protection to the branch office, while optimizing performance of SaaS and other
cloud-based applications. Cisco WAAS also provides disk encryption features on the branch-office device to protect
data at rest. When combined with the deep visibility provided by Cisco APM, the result is high performance for
cloud-delivered applications, without compromising the security of sensitive business data and communications.

Conclusion: A Compelling Opportunity for Providers and Customers

Cloud offers resources and services that are abstracted from the underlying infrastructure and provided “on demand”
and “at scale” in a multitenant environment. Cloud services promise to reduce the complexity of IT, with associated
gains in the agility, flexibility, and responsiveness of the delivered service. Delivery of applications from the cloud to
the branch-office user, however, can create challenges in areas such as provisioning, security, and performance.

7
Source: Cisco Application Delivery Business Unit: Test Analysis, 2009.

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Cisco APM accelerates the adoption of cloud-based services, providing the application visibility, WAN optimization,
and application control needed for successful private and public cloud–based application delivery. With end-to-end
performance management, APM helps organizations - and the providers that serve them - take advantage of the full
potential of cloud services.

By adopting a forward-looking, intelligent, application-aware network solution that includes Cisco APM, service
providers can better position themselves to compete for enterprise and SMB IT services business.

For more information visit:

● http://www.cisco.com/go/apm
● http://www.cisco.com/go/waas

Authors
Stephen Makayi is a marketing manager in Cisco’s Service Provider Marketing Group, focusing on application
performance management services. You can reach Stephen at smakayi@cisco.com.

Uwe Lambrette is a director of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, Service Provider Practice, focusing on
service provider business transformation. You can reach Uwe at ulambret@cisco.com.

Wouter Belmans is a senior manager in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, Service Provider Practice,
focusing on data center and cloud. You can reach Wouter at wbelmans@cisco.com.

Printed in USA C11-599163-00 04/10

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