Cisco Systems Inc. last week unveiled what it billed as its “next-generation” application delivery technology, the Application Control Engine (ACE), a new multi-service module for its Catalyst 6500 Series switches.

Cisco says its new ACE ships with throughput aplenty (up to 16 gigabits per second), multi-layer security and virtual partitioning capabilities.

The ACE multi-service module can host up to 250 logical devices (or partitions) that can be managed and operated separately. (The ACE module supports per-partition resource allocation.) It also ships with role-based access control capabilities and an XML management API, and it can be used to help consolidate functions such as server load balancing (and off-load), application acceleration, and application-layer security. Finally, the ACE offers several failover options, including failover between application partitions, within a chassis, across chassis within a single data center, and between data centers.

Cisco claims that the ACE sets a new performance benchmark by supporting up to 345,000 sustained connection setups per second. Customers can deploy several ACE modules in Catalyst 6500 Series chassis for additional throughput.

Elsewhere, Cisco announced a new application security software module for its Application Velocity System (AVS) appliance. The new security software module is designed to interoperate with Cisco ACE to add bi-directional application inspection and protection capabilities and eliminate potential application vulnerabilities. The Cisco ACE with AVS security software module provides bi-directional protection of application traffic, supports efficient inspection, filtering, and fix-up of popular data center protocols.