Are you looking to deliver an intelligent, dynamic and highly optimized programmable network where applications have control in how they explicitly traverse the end-to-end network?

If so, you have probably been watching the Application Engineered Routing story unfold since it was launched in March 2015. For those of you following this developing chapter in the end-to-end application control play book, you might have read the past few blogs by my colleague, Frederic Trate (here and here) or even watched Dave Ward, Cisco CTO and Chief Architect, present on engineering the network for applications on the main stage at MPLS World Congress 2015 earlier this year (see Featured Content).Even better yet, you might have caught one of many presentations given by Clarence Filsfils, Cisco Fellow and industry pioneer of Segment Routing (see Featured Content). If you are playing catch up on this subject, I recommend you read the above-mentioned blogs, and watch the videos which can be found on our website and then, return here for the next chapter of the story.

If you are wondering how the next chapter of the story unfolds, continue reading. Let's call this chapter:Chapter 10-The Day WAN Automation Engine worked with Segment Routing to Bring the Application to Life!

Why you ask? The answer is simple.

Last month Cisco's WAN Automation Engine 6.2 was released and supports many new features, the most important being "Application Engineered Routing -Segment Routing (SR) collection, optimization and deployment".This is great news for the Application Engineered Routing solution. As you can see in the below in Figure 1, one of the major components of Application Engineered Routing is anSDN Controller.

Now since WAE Release 6.2 supports Segment Routing going forward it can be used as an SDN controller in the AER solution. This is important for anyone who wants to implement Application Engineered Routing and wishes to use the WAN Automation Engine as the SDN controller to optimize their network for applications. Of course many operators have other or even home grown SDN controllers, but those without the resources to build a controller in house now have a great off-the-shelf option.

To learn more on how the WAN Automation Engine works together with Segment Routing to deliver an intelligent, dynamic and highly optimized programmable network, download the latest whitepaper onApplication Engineered Routing and the Cisco WAN Automation Enginefound here:

Join the conversation -tell us what you think, or contact your local account team or partner and they can show you how to implement Application Engineered Routing in your network.

We're very excited about Segment Routing functionality being supported by and believe Application Engineered Routing is the most important chapter in the end-to-end application control playbook. Stay tuned for more!

Have questions or comments? Tweet us  @CiscoSP360 to learn more!