The Cisco ACE module allows enterprises to accomplish four primary IT objectives for application delivery - maximizes application availability, accelerates application performance and secures the data center and critical business applications.The Cisco ACE module 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 key design element of Cisco ACE and a differentiator, versus other solutions in the marketplace, is its ability to leverage virtualized architecture and role-based administration to streamline and reduce the cost of operations involved with rolling out, scaling, accelerating and protecting applications.To maximize application availability, the Cisco ACE module leverages best-in-class application switching algorithms coupled with highly available system software and hardware.The Cisco ACE module greatly improves server efficiency through both highly flexible application traffic management, as well as offloading CPU-intensive tasks such as SSL encryption/decryption processing and TCP session management.Cisco ACE is designed to serve as a last line of defense for servers and applications in data centers. The Cisco ACE module performs deep packet inspection and blocks malicious attacks. An integrated firewall enables IT professionals to comprehensively secure high-value applications in the data center and facilitates consolidation in data center.