2010 Handbook of Application Delivery

In this fourth edition of what is clearly the industry’s most extensive single-source reference on application delivery, Jim continues to explore a very wide range of topics covering all aspects of application delivery.

This 2010 edition adds a number of topics that have emerged in past year, so this is much more than a simple update. In reality, it’s a totally new product.

This is much more than just "a paper." With over 100 pages of editorial information, this can be considered the ultimate source on all aspects of this topic.

As Steve points out, this is the fourth edition of the Application Delivery Handbook. However, to me it feels like the first edition. I say that because as I point out in the handbook, some of the application delivery challenges that we have experienced for years (such as optimizing the performance of TCP) are still important challenges today. The good news is that we clearly have the technology to solve this set of challenge.

As the handbook also points out, some of the traditional application delivery challenges have morphed. Ensuring the quality of VoIP traffic is (surprisingly) still a very important problem today. That challenge, however, has morpehd into the broader issue of ensuring the quality of other real time applications such as video and telepresence. Again, the good news here is that we have the technology to solve this set of challenges. Another traditional challenge that has morphed is security. It was not that long ago that hackers were lone individuals with deep personality issues. A great example of that persona is Kevin Mitnick. That *@#$%@# hacked DEC in a major way when I was responsible for DEC's data network. I still dislike(!!) Mitnick. That said, we have seen the introduction of a new generation of cyber hackers. In addition to the Mitnick's of the world, we now have organized crime and rogue nations. We have some tools to fight off this new wave of hackers, but it is less of a slam dunk than optimizing the performance of TCP.

Then we come to virtualization and cloud computing. As the handbook points out (in detail), these two trends exacerbate some traditional challenges for which we have solutions, and also create a new generation of really difficult challenges for which we have few, if any, solutions.

Bottom line: We are starting all over again with a new generation of challenges that are building on top of an existing set of challenges which many IT organizations are still struggling to resolve. These challenges have two components: technology and internal IT politics. While the technology challenges are truly formidable, I would rather tackle them than deal with trying to change the culture of an IT organization.