Riverbed Targets Cloud With Virtual Application Delivery Controller

In addition, the new services controller will offer a new way for users to deploy ADC services through the Stingray Traffic Manager (STM) “micro” instance. The STM micro instances can be anything from small ADC instances to large Stingray instances, all housed on commodity servers. Through the STM micro instances, service providers and businesses can scale their instances on demand to meet the needs of each application, rather than having to guess at the traffic load and ADC capabilities ahead of time.

ZK’s Kerravala said that while hardware-based ADCs will always be used for various high-performance workloads, the trend in the data centre is toward more flexible, scalable and dynamic resources.

“If you look out into the future, the server and storage infrastructure will become increasingly virtualised and mobile, creating an agile and flexible compute environment,” he wrote. “All the functions that surround the server must have the same level of flexibility and agility and that can only be done with a product like the Stingray Services Controller. Over time, I expect to see other data centre services such as security functionality; even some network functions will move to this ‘as a service’ model to keep up with computing trends.”

Analysts at Dell’Oro Group said in a September 2012 report that virtual appliances will help fuel growth in the ADC space, which they said will grow from $50 million (£32m) in 2011 to almost $500 million (£322m) by 2016.

“Within the Application Delivery Controller market, we see increasing strength in virtual appliances and expect this growth to continue throughout our forecast horizon,” Casey Quillin, senior analyst of data centre appliance market research at Dell’Oro, said in a statement at the time. “Virtual appliances can quickly be deployed in production networks as unexpected or unplanned needs arise, such as supplementing existing hardware with a virtual appliance for peak load or surge situations.”

ADC vendors like Riverbed, A10 Networks, F5 Networks and Citrix Systems were given a boost in September 2012 when Cisco Systems officials said they would exit the market. Cisco reportedly had been losing share to other vendors, and company officials said it was part of a larger effort to shed underperforming businesses.

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Originally published on eWeek.