Four factors are driving change in how applications are developed and deployed today. First off, today’s users access applications and services from a plethora of devices in addition to their static desktops. They demand secure access from work, from home, and on the go – all with consistent and reliable performance. Second, application architectures are evolving from traditional 2 / 3 tier models to distributed “microservices” architectures specifically to ensure efficient application delivery on mobile devices. This is exactly how applications at hyperscale companies such as EBay, Netflix, Twitter, and Amazon are architected. Third, application deployment locations have changed. Applications may be deployed not only at on-premise enterprise datacenters but also at several public cloud locations such as AWS. In addition, applications may span multiple datacenters and clouds for redundancy and higher performance. Finally, the efficacy of applications is now measured in terms of end-user engagement and satisfaction for both internal employees and external customers. As a result, end-user monitoring is critical for ensuring high quality service delivery and guaranteeing SLAs. Furthermore, the sprawl of microservices within and across clouds increases the need for improved visibility, monitoring, performance management, and security.

As CEO, my job is to listen to customers and understand their concerns. Throughout a decades-long career at Avi Networks and other highly-regarded tech companies, I’ve heard dozens of customers tell me about their challenges in moving to an on-demand, cloud services model. More than once, I’ve heard that the biggest area that gets in their way is the application delivery services model. We’ve witnessed significant change in the last decade. Today, we operate in a world where mobile devices and cloud environments are the new norm, causing a fundamental shift in application architecture to a microservices model. As a result, traditional application delivery solutions fall short because these solutions were not architected for an environment built for mobility, flexibility and elastic scale.