Patent ID: 8892745

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processor; a communications interface configured to communicate with a first data center; a detection module configured to detect a presence of a wide area application service (WAAS), wherein the presence of the WAAS allows for a signal to redirect data packets associated with a request from the first data center to a second data center, and wherein the detection module is configured to recognize a transmission control protocol (TCP) option in detecting the presence of the WAAS; a WAAS element coupled to the communications interface, wherein a classification list is communicated to the WAAS element such that new connections are proxied initially at setup in order to remove the first data center from a setup path, wherein an unbind message is sent to clear an ingress WAAS state once the first data center returns to a working condition; and a load balancer that stores tables for maintaining information pertinent to redirection operations, wherein the load balancer communicates cookie information to the WAAS element to be passed to the second data center after redirection to establish a redirected connection; wherein the WAAS element can preserve L3 and L4 address information of a session during redirection of a data packet associated with the request to the second data center and changes a payload of the data packet associated with the request into an optimized form.