1) Aon come in three (3) form factors today. The primary is a Cat6K blade that includes hardware that performs many of the XML parsing, encryption, and decryption functions. The second form factor is a Volant ISR module compatible with the 26xx - 38xx ISR routers. The Third factor is a stand-alone appliance that provides higher performance and capacity data handling for more intense customer situations. All of these form factors are currently available through a controlled availability process. Send a email to "ask-aon-pm" mailer list for more details.
2) Basic AON feature/functions of AON include things like:
- XML URL virtualization - the ability to map URLs to other URLs at runtime,
- Content Based Routing - the ability to route application messages based on specific content within the message itself,
- Data caching - the ability to cache messages or externally accessed data for use in responses, etc., - encryption and decyption of messages _and_ individual elements within the messages,
- Digital signing and signature validation,
- message enrichment by making content based outcalls to other resources,
- message and user authentication and authorization to insure proper access.
Please let me know if this answers your question.
Thanks!
