What is an application delivery controller (ADC)? An application delivery controller (ADC) is a network component that is primarily used to optimize and manage traffic flow as well as client connections to both web and application servers. ADCs also help with application acceleration and assist with application security. They are typically housed in a data center and their capabilities can be implemented using a hardware or software device. Because they can be installed via hardware or virtualized software, enterprises have additional flexibility in how to deploy them. In addition to accelerating application delivery, ADCs improve visibility, offer security and scalability, help in maintaining website performance, and also promote application availability.
For industries that have hundreds of web servers and need to manage thousands of customer requests on a normal basis, ADCs are essential. The load-balancing that ADCs provide makes spikes in traffic manageable and ensures that applications continue to run smoothly. Application delivery controllers also supply organizations with security and access to applications at peak times. In addition, ADCs work to complete tasks that have otherwise been performed by traditional custom-built hardware in the past. ADCs are also needed because they allow an organization to securely scale up application services very quickly, and help companies consolidate network-based services.
An ADC uses different techniques to enhance performance, one of which includes load balancing. Through load balancing, ADCs are able to speed up application delivery. It is used to distribute incoming requests across a group of servers after the requests have been sent sequentially to the servers in a list by way of a simple algorithm. The requests are allocated to a resource from an application delivery platform. How the load balancer allocates the session is based on metrics like the geographic location of an endpoint device making the request, or on metrics like current server load or the current network latency. ADC load balancing ensures that requests are shared over available data centers and servers evenly, even when multiple geographic hosting centers are being used simultaneously.
ADCs work by acting as load balancers that handle traffic flow to servers and by providing security for applications. ADCs also use several different techniques to improve the acceleration of business applications and to enhance application performance. These techniques include:
An application delivery platform is a platform that helps speed up load times for data centers and also speed up the application delivery process. Application delivery platforms help make user experiences better because they allow IT teams to solve problems quickly.
Typically, ADCs are used by almost every industry and any enterprise or company that relies on large-scale content delivery networks (CDNs) in order to generate fast web application services and to make sure websites with high traffic rates are secure, constantly on, and also available to their users.
Among the many benefits of ADCs are security, visibility, and acceleration. Beyond these major advantages, application delivery controllers are recognized for:
Application delivery controllers include many features. Below are just some of them to consider when looking to make a decision on which ADC you choose: