WCCP and the Proxy

If your network is truly mission critical, and you need to be up 24x7, then bringing down your network to install an inline proxy probably isn't the best solution for your needs. First there's the service window to do the install (not necessarily a show stopper, but something you'd probably like to avoid). Second, there's the proxy itself. While it may have advanced features like fail to wire (the ability for traffic to flow through if the device itself fails), you may still consider it a single point of failure and need or want better redundancy.

In this scenario, you may want to look at WCCP (Web Cache Communication Protocol) as your solution. The requirements? Cisco routers in your environment running IOS version 12.1 or higher. WCCP was originally developed for cisco routers to redirect web traffic to Cisco Cache Engines, but today will work with any proxy that supports WCCP.

WCCP has built-in load-balancing, scaling, fault tolerance, and service-assurance (failsafe) mechanisms. With all these features, WCCP may just be the solution for the mission critical network. There's no excuse for not having a proxy acting as a secure web gateway.