INTELLIGENT DATACENTRES the gas pedal in order to turn on the air conditioner. You would not feel like you got your money’ s worth, and it would be grossly inefficient.
What is the total cost of
2 ownership? You deserve to know how much your application delivery controllers are going to cost you in the long run. You do not need sneaky licensing fees and upgrades popping up at every turn to nickel and dime you.
3
How do you support multitenancy? Modern applications demand speed and security. Users do as well. When it comes to application delivery controllers, application delivery has to be optimised and secure, with few headaches. Often, companies are running hundreds of applications, each of which requires a specific set of policies. Application specific policies can be applied and tailored to individual applications to ensure that application performs the way you need them to.
Businesses need the granularity to provide specific application delivery controllers policies to most, if not all of their applications and user groups. These policies must be tailored to each individual application, but having one application delivery controller per application is not practical or feasible in certain environments. Application delivery controllers must support multi-tenancy and deliver the ability to have application specific policies— this is a must-have, not a nice to have.
4
Is the application delivery controller easy to use? Ease of use and integration are huge factors in the purchasing decision. That is why application delivery controller products must be completely programmable and interoperate with other complementary infrastructure
Application delivery controllers must support multi-tenancy and deliver the ability to have application specific policies— this is a must have, not a nice to have
gear. Leveraging setup and configuration methods used by mainstream vendors make devices easier to learn and deploy. Difficult-to-use APIs, that are not intuitive and do not adhere to industry norms, make operations more challenging and cumbersome. That can delay getting boxes up and running and require extra training for IT staff.
5
What is your cloud strategy?
The world is moving to the cloud, along with many of your applications. Your application delivery controller vendor should have a finely-tuned cloud strategy that will help you bridge the physical and cloud-native worlds. This is especially true for service providers. If your application delivery controller vendor lacks solutions for cloud-native applications, multi-cloud environments and ADC-as-a-Service, are they the right partner to invest in for your business future?
What sets your operating
6 system apart? Modern applications require speed and agility. If your box is running a legacy operating system or one that has not been updated or optimised in a few years, your applications may feel like they are running over dial-up.
How do your application
7 delivery controllers scale?
There is nothing more frustrating than a box that does not scale. Do not get burned by limited scaling, or by a forced upgrade or additional purchases to achieve the scalability your applications require.
8
What do your customers say?
Before you take the plunge and side with an application delivery controller vendor, it is imperative to learn about what their customer base thinks about them and their service. Due diligence requires close examination of case studies, reviews, references.
9
How stable is the executive leadership team? Turmoil and turnover in the executive ranks can directly impact customers. It impacts productivity, decisions, and product direction and availability. Changes in leadership can create dramatic shifts and unsettle partners and customers.
10
What is inside the trophy case? Finally, technology awards are a great validation of the product.
Chris Gale is Partner Director EMEA at A10 Networks
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