Acceleration, Optimization, Security, and the Data Center

Application Delivery’s Next Step

By Robin Layland, Layland Consulting
Published April 2009, Posted April 2009

Abstract:

The economic downturn is putting pressure on IT to reduce costs and to support other IT groups’ cost-saving projects. Cost-saving projects such as consolidating branch office servers to the data center and increased collaboration using video and TelePresence are getting the green light. At the same time a down economy means increased security risk from professional criminals.

Application delivery is one of the chief tools to meet these challenges. Application Delivery solutions such as WOC (WAN Optimization Controllers) and the data center ADC (Application Delivery Controllers) reduce WAN and server costs. They can also play a key role in security. The problem is that there are some serious short-comings with the first generation of Application Delivery solutions that keep them from meeting their full potential.

Application Delivery needs to take the next evolutionary step. Application Delivery vendors need to provide an integrated solution that can classify, control and prioritize traffic at the application layer while also providing most, if not all, of the needed application services and security. The banner this second generation set of solutions flies under is Application Delivery Networking.