Lagrange Systems, a pioneer in Cloud-based Application Delivery, Load Balancing and Edge Security, is working hard to become the leader in the ADC market. Presently, Lagrange has thirty customers, with plenty more coming on board soon. Their CloudMaestro is a controller and management platform that coordinates the layers of functionality across the various cloud providers – its like SDN being done on a global scale. Whereas all web applications can benefit from Cloud ADC, not all of them need a CDN, especially ones catering to a regional audience. A big thanks to Sonal Puri for sharing her insight on this new and exiting market.
Who is Lagrange Systems? Lagrange is a Silicon Valley startup focused on improving the web user experience through cloud application delivery.
What is Cloud ADC and how is it different then what Instart Logic and Akamai are offering? A defining characteristic of a Cloud ADC is the separation of the control plane from the data plane. This allows for an always-on application delivery controller where the external control plane is free to add and remove capacity from any tier in the application stack as needed.
For example, if an application server fails, then the control plane can replace it. If the ADC tier requires more network capacity to service the forecasted customer load, then new ADCs can be created and integrated into the system.
The fundamental difference between Lagrange and Instart Logic or Akamai is that unlike those CDN services, The Lagrange ADC functionality optimizes the application stack for the origin service while also coordinating the CDN services that are being leveraged to deliver a great user experience. I see us collaborating with the CDN layer rather than replacing it. Sites that are focused on delivering a great user experience leverage Lagrange to help their apps get the most out of their CDN.
Is there cases when Cloud ADC is a good fit but a CDN is not? Like I mentioned previously, we collaborate with the CDN to deliver a great user experience. However, there are certain applications where a CDN provides little value because global performance is not the primary concern for the Application.
We provide scaling services to a number of regional applications where the consumers of the web service are very localized around the IaaS data center where the origin servers are hosted, the first mile. In these cases, a global CDN is of little value where as the Lagrange ADC service ensures that the customer’s application is always on, no matter what.
How are you different than Appcito and Avi Networks? We have over 30 customers. We are focused on servicing the hosted e-commerce market, where as we believe Avi Networks is focused primarily on large scale Enterprise and datacenter workloads. We also deliver a proactive scaling capability for applications that helps the stack stay ahead of the demand curve, ensuring that performance stays great as demand goes viral.
Is the Cloud ADC Market bigger than CDN? I believe that it is, simply because every web service requires ADC functionality to deliver an always on user experience, where as, not every web service requires a CDN to deliver a great user experience. That said, the markets for both are quite large and growing at a healthy pace.
