Application Delivery Controller
An Application Delivery Controller (ADC) is a network device or software solution that optimizes the delivery of web applications by managing traffic, enhancing security, and improving performance. It typically sits between clients and servers, handling tasks like load balancing, SSL offloading, caching, and application acceleration. ADCs are essential for ensuring high availability, scalability, and reliability of modern applications in data centers or cloud environments.
Developers should learn about ADCs when building or maintaining scalable web applications that require efficient traffic management, such as e-commerce sites, SaaS platforms, or microservices architectures. They are crucial for handling high user loads, preventing downtime through failover mechanisms, and improving user experience by reducing latency. Knowledge of ADCs is also valuable for DevOps and site reliability engineers to optimize application performance and security in production environments.