Avi Networks, a start-up founded by key engineers behind Cisco's Nexus data center platforms, unveiled its hyperscale application delivery controller (ADC) for helping enterprise customers deliver for on-premise and cloud-based applications.
Instead of using fleets of hardware-based ADC appliances, Avi's Cloud Application Delivery Platform (CADP) and Hyperscale Distributed Resources Architecture (HYDRA) adopts the same approach taken by large cloud service providers, such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, in that it runs entirely in software on x86. Compared to virtualized ADCs or load balancers, Avi's architecture separates the control plane from the data plane, bringing the cloud-scale to the application delivery platform. Avi is also bringing traffic analytics into its Layer 7 switching, enabling application flows to dynamically adapt to traffic conditions.
"In today’s mobile cloud era, the traditional appliance-centric, monolithic application delivery approach doesn’t work anymore,” said Umesh Mahajan, Founder and CEO of Avi Networks. “Inspired by the proven architectural approach pioneered by hyperscale cloud service providers, we developed the Avi Networks Cloud Application Delivery Platform to allow enterprise customers to accelerate their cloud journey, while maximizing their end-user application experience.”
Avi cited the following five virtues of its architecture:
- Agility via programmability, self-service and an on-demand elastic scale.
- Analytics and insights about every real-time and historic user-to-application transaction.
- Adaptive to changes in user-demand or application scale, automatically.
- Mobile-access optimization – from a performance, scale and security perspective.
- Multi-cloud support for on-premise, private and public cloud deployments.
- Prior to co-founding Avi Networks in November 2012, Umesh Mahajan was VP/GM of Data Center Switching at Cisco, responsible for the Nexus 7000, MDS, NX-OS and DCNM families. Before that, he was Senior Director of Software Engineering at Andiamo, which was acquired by Cisco. Avi's team also includes Murali Basavaiah (co-founder and Engineering Lead), who previously was VP Engineering at Cisco for NX-OS Software and Nexus 7000/MDS product; and Ranga Rajagopalan (Cheif Architect and CTO), who previously was Sr. Director of Engineering at Cisco and responsible for NX-OS systems/platform software for the Cisco Nexus 7000.
