The Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance delivers a wide range of high-performance, high-density security services with Active/Active high availability and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for medium-to-large enterprise and service-provider networks, in a reliable, modular appliance. Using its four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and support for up to 100 VLANs, businesses can segment their network into numerous zones for improved security. The Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance scales with businesses as their network security requirements grow, delivering exceptional investment protection and services scalability. The advanced network and application layer security services and anti-x defenses provided by the Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance can be extended by deploying a high performance Security Services Module. Businesses can scale their IPSec and SSL VPN capacity through multiple means to support a larger number of mobile workers, remote sites, and business partners. VPN capacity and resiliency can be increased by taking advantage of the integrated VPN clustering and load balancing capabilities of the Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance, with support for up to 10 appliances in a cluster supporting a maximum of 50, 000 VPN peers per cluster. Businesses can also scale up to 5000 IPSec and 2500 SSL VPN peers on each Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance through the installation of a VPN upgrade license. Using the optional security context capabilities of the Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliance, businesses can deploy up to 50 virtual firewalls within an appliance to enable compartmentalized control of security policies on per-department or per-customer basis, and deliver reduced overall management and support costs.