4 Reasons to Shop Certified – ADC Selection Made Easy
Industry leading application vendors – like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, IBM, Blackboard, VMware and others – typically require strict certification processes for key technologies, such as application delivery controllers (ADCs) aka ‘load balancers’, that will interact with the application. This certification seems like a technical term that’s great for us as an ADC vendor, but why should your company care? It’s very simple; that “piece of paper” means your company will save when integrating ADCs with mission-critical apps.
As more and more applications explode onto the network scene, there’s more traffic hitting servers than ever before. This places even more responsibility on the ADC to offload traffic from servers via re-routing, caching, compression, and other methods specific to that application. That’s what you expect when buying an ADC. But to use a layman’s example – you wouldn’t buy a device charger for a Samsung phone, if you have an Apple iPhone. In the same vein, why would you buy an ADC that’s not certified as compatible with a specific application vendor?
Having an ADC solution that is compatible with the application vendor will assure your traffic runs smoothly at a cheaper cost. Here are four reasons why certified ADC controllers will help you and your business:
- Easy Implementation: With certification integrators are required to provide quick install and configuration guides, release notes, support documentation, testing scenario information or other technical reference material. This will allow you to quickly add an ADC controller, without experiencing unnecessary downtime or staff overhead costs
- Performance Testing: Many ADC vendors test their controllers during the certification process. This gives ADC vendors a chance to show in quantifiable terms how the addition of the ADC will help improve application performance. In the end, this is a win for your company because you can speak to business end users in a language they understand and appreciate (e.g. faster response, less expense, more uptime).
- Application Optimization Fine-Tuning: Similar to testing, ADC vendors have worked during the certification process to fully optimize the load balancing device, and it’s documented. This gives you the opportunity to deploy it in the same way, optimizing application load balancing in the most efficient way possible
- Avoid Being the Guinea Pig: Since the vendor has gone through all these steps to become certified, they will know best practices for seamless interoperability with the specific application. That means your company doesn’t have to start from scratch. As a customer, you will be able to tap into the knowledge and expertise of the vendor and in some cases benefit from additionally offered capabilities for related needs (security protection, pay-as-you grow licensing, etc.)
These are only four of the reasons that certification adds value to your business. It’s not just a piece of paper, but it actually does add value to your company’s purchase. Plus, it keeps integration costs down, risks in check, and productivity on the rise. Consider it the proof of authenticity you needed before purchase, so buy certified.
What are some other advantages to buying from an application delivery certified vendor? Let me know.
Until next time,
Nir
