Got a laptop and password but still waiting for my access card. Had a quick look now on the Application Control Engine confiuration guides (admin, routing and bridging, load-balancing). ACE is the next generation load-balancer from Cisco, superseding the CSM. ACE is very similar to the CSM, both are load-balancers. They are nevertheless some differences that should be noted.
First, while CSM is simply running on top of IOS, sharing the same config file as the switch, ACE runs in its very own module and OS.
Since ACE is running in its very own module, the config file is not the startup-config. ACE propose a configuration system where you can checkpoint an rollback.
CSM is a monolithic system. Like FWSM, the ACE is virtualized, meaning it can run different contexts.
ACE has also hardware acceleration, very useful to ease the CPU on SSL connections.
The configuration logic and the traffic flow has also been changed since CSM.
Netw82 