Dedicated Central Manager Device or Software?

[lanton]

We purchased through our VAR one 694 and two 294 devices, that are to be set up for accelerating the core HQ with two other sites.  Now we are being told that we need to add another 294 for the sole purpose of managing the rest of the devices.  Now I am wondering how the sales engineer was planning on deploying these units originally.  I understand the need for a manager, but find it strange to require an entire piece additional unit for that sole purpose.  Seems expensive.  Can't the manager load as software on something else?  Does it have to be an entire appliance?  What about on my 3825 router?

Thanks,

Lewis

[Michael Korenbaum]

A central manager is required to managed all of your accelerators properly / be in a supported configuration.

You don't necessarily need a physical appliance though.   We do have a virtual form factor (vWAAS and vCM) that can run on a ESXi hypervisor.

vWAAS is the accelerator version and vCM is the manager version.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/app_ntwk_services/waas/waas/vwaas/guide/vwaasguide.html#wp69212