Application Control Engines: A Comprehensive Buyer's Guide

Take control of your applications and safeguard your data with a comprehensive Application Control Engine buyer’s guide.
By Invest Nust

Demystify Application Control Engines! This guide explores features, benefits, considerations & more to help you choose the right ACE for your business.

Take control of your applications and safeguard your data with a comprehensive Application Control Engine buyer's guide. — Demystify Application Control Engines! This guide explores features, benefits, considerations & more to help you choose the right ACE for your business.

In today’s digital world, businesses rely on a vast array of applications to function. From productivity tools to customer relationship management (CRM) software, these applications hold sensitive data that needs protection. Traditional security measures like firewalls might not be enough. This is where Application Control Engines (ACEs) come in.

Table of Contents

What is an Application Control Engine (ACE)?

An ACE is a security solution that monitors and controls application activity on a network or endpoint device. It acts like a digital gatekeeper, allowing only authorized applications to run and restricting unauthorized ones. This helps prevent malware infections, data breaches, and unauthorized access.

Benefits of Using an Application Control Engine

Enhanced Security: ACEs significantly reduce the risk of malware attacks and data breaches by blocking unauthorized applications.
Improved Compliance: ACEs can help organizations meet industry regulations and compliance standards by restricting access to sensitive data.
Increased Productivity: By preventing employees from using unauthorized applications, ACEs can boost productivity and focus.
Reduced Operational Costs: ACEs can streamline IT management by automating application control policies.

Key Features to Consider When Choosing an ACE

Visibility and Control: Look for an ACE that provides detailed insights into application activity and offers granular control options.
Threat Detection: Choose an ACE with built-in threat intelligence and the ability to detect and block malicious applications.
Scalability: Select an ACE that can scale to meet the growing needs of your business.
Ease of Use: An intuitive and user-friendly interface is crucial for managing and implementing application control policies.
Integration: Consider an ACE that integrates seamlessly with your existing security infrastructure.

The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and application control engines are no exception. Here’s a glimpse into what the future holds for ACEs:

Machine Learning and AI: Expect to see increased adoption of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ACEs. These technologies will enable them to learn application behavior patterns, detect anomalies, and proactively block threats.
Cloud-Based Deployment: Cloud-based ACE solutions will likely become even more popular due to their scalability, ease of management, and accessibility.
Integration with Zero Trust Architecture: ACEs will likely play a more significant role within Zero Trust security models, helping enforce least privilege access and continuous verification.
Enhanced User Experience: We can expect to see user interfaces become even more intuitive and user-friendly, simplifying policy creation and management for IT teams.
Focus on User Behavior: ACEs might integrate with User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) tools to analyze user activity patterns and identify potential insider threats.

Choosing the Right ACE for Your Business

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to ACEs. The ideal solution depends on factors like your business size, industry, budget, and specific security needs.

Do Your Research:

Identify your security goals and vulnerabilities.
Research different ACE vendors and compare their features and pricing.
Read reviews and customer testimonials.

Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers

Product Overview

The Cisco ^® ACE Application Control Engine Module for the Cisco Catalyst ^® 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers represents the next generation of application switches for increasing availability, acceleration, and security of data center applications.

The Cisco ACE Module allows enterprises to accomplish four primary IT objectives for application delivery:

• Increase application availability

• Accelerate application performance

• Secure the data center and critical business applications

• Facilitate data center consolidation through the use of fewer servers, load balancers, and firewalls.

The Cisco ACE Module (Figure 1) achieves these goals through a broad set of intelligent Layer 4 load-balancing and Layer 7 content-switching technologies integrated with leading-edge acceleration and security capabilities. A crucial design element of Cisco ACE, and a differentiator between the Cisco solution and other solutions in the marketplace, is its ability to use virtualized architecture and role-based administration capabilities that streamline and reduce the cost of operations involved in deploying, scaling, accelerating, and protecting applications.

The Cisco ACE Module provides best-in-industry scalability and throughput for managing application traffic, up to 16 Gbps in a single module; up to four modules can be run in a single Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series chassis, upgradeable through software licenses or new module additions, thus providing IT with long-term investment protection and scalability.

Additionally, through its unique virtualization capabilities, Cisco ACE enables IT to provision and deliver a broad range of multiple applications from a single Cisco ACE Module, bringing increased scalability for application provisioning to the data center.

To increase application availability, the Cisco ACE Module uses best-in-class application switching algorithms coupled with highly available system software and hardware.

The Cisco ACE Module greatly improves server efficiency through highly flexible application traffic management as well as the offloading of CPU-intensive tasks such as SSL encryption and decryption processing and TCP session management.

Cisco ACE is designed to serve as the last line of defense for servers and applications in data centers. The Cisco ACE Module performs deep packet inspection and blocks malicious attacks. Highly scalable integrated security enables IT professionals to comprehensively secure high-value applications in the data center and facilitates consolidation in the data center.

By combining high-performance application delivery with a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art application delivery features, the Cisco ACE Module enhances IT efficiency and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO). IT efficiency is increased through the use of innovative features such as virtual devices, role-based administration, instant application isolation, and single-view provisioning. Improved TCO is accomplished by consolidating most Layer 4 through 7 requirements into a complete and reliable application delivery platform.

Source OF Information http://www.cisco.com/go/ace credit to : Cisco

Figure 1. Cisco ACE Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers