SoftADC - Future is here! (Part -1)

In my last article, I wrote about different types of virtualization and which is best for ADC. SoftADC, is a software version of ADC product. It can be classified further into
1) Software that can be run as a virtual appliance on a generic hardware on top of hypervisor like vmware, xen or hyper-v
From Vmware's website, three vendors provide softADC.
- Zeus
- JetNexus
- Citrix Netscaler

2) Software that can be run on a environment that provides virtualization customized to run networking appliances.
- Nortel/Radware Virutal services switch

Most of ADC vendors have shown inclination towards the first type of softADC. The customized virtualization environment solution seems to have not been successful so far. The reason could be the attempt is not so well executed or due to Nortel financial crisis. I will leave that to your analysis.

But, I back the idea of the customized networking virtualization as it is designed to provide high efficiency for networking virtual appliances like firewalls, SSL acceleration, Application Delivery controllers, IPS etc.,
- Built in Hardware support for SSL acceleration
- Advantage of Resource virtualization and network virtualization
- Simplified hyervisor to suit networking appliances, so less overhead.
- Ability to run thread of virtual appliances for a given client connection ( For example: Firewall - SSL - Firewall - IPS - SSL)

SoftADC has its own advantages. The fact that is running on generic hardware and work with established cloud computing infrastructure, it is simple to configure and manage from administrator point of view. The performance it could generate suits for small to medium scale businesses. And, it is also scalable by adding more cores and gain the performance.

Some softADCs seems to have identified the bottlenecks associated when running on generic hardware. For example, Zeus has support for SSL acceleration on hardware when used.

SoftADC are here to stay especially in this era of cloud computing. The business requirements will define what type of SoftADC to deploy.