Welcome to the VMware Load Balancing and WAF blog!
This blog was launched after the acquisition of Avi Networks and it is where the Avi team will share updates, news, and ideas about our load balancing and WAF solutions. This is also the new home for the Avi Network’s blog. We will migrate many of our existing articles and continue to publish new posts here.
We thought it’d be a good idea to kick off the blog with answers to some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve received since VMware’s acquisition of Avi Networks.
What is Avi Networks and the Avi Vantage Platform?
Avi Networks is the company that created the Avi Vantage Platform, a software-defined multi-cloud load balancing fabric for all applications across data centers and cloud environments. Now part of VMware, Avi is available as a standalone load balancer and as an integrated VMware solution. Compared to other load balancing solutions, Avi helps provide better scalability, performance, and troubleshooting at a lower total cost of ownership.
What is the Avi Vantage Platform called now?
The Avi Vantage Platform is now officially called VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer on the VMware price book. But if you want to call it Avi, VMware Load Balancer, or Best Load Balancer Ever, we know what you’re talking about.
Will Avi require an NSX license?
Not at all. Avi can be deployed as a standalone load balancer or as an integrated solution with other VMware products.
Avi is now part of the Networking and Security Business Unit at VMware and will become a critical component of many of the NSX technologies and solutions. Some competitors that are losing customers to Avi have used this acquisition to spread FUD saying that “Avi will only address VMware/NSX use cases going forward.” This is categorically false. The Avi acquisition officially marks VMware’s entry into the ADC market where VMware will address the entire market for load balancing, WAF, and traffic management for container environments.
Where can I deploy Avi?
Anywhere! Avi can be deployed on containers, virtual machines, and bare metal across your data centers or any cloud environment, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, OpenShift, and OpenStack.
Are there different versions of Avi depending on the infrastructure environment?
No. Unlike appliance-based load balancers that have hardware, virtual, and cloud editions with varying features and performance, Avi is a software-defined solution that works consistently across all environments.
What types of applications does Avi work with?
Avi works with any type of application, from traditional applications in the data center to microservices distributed across multi-cloud environments.
How does Avi’s architecture compare to other hardware and software load balancers?
Avi provides a load balancing fabric that is managed by a centralized controller. Unlike hardware and virtualized appliances that require HA pairs and manual provisioning and troubleshooting, Avi is highly automated and powered by closed-loop analytics to drive better performance, efficiency, and troubleshooting.
Is VMware now competing directly with legacy load balancing vendors?
You bet your apps we are!
Which companies use Avi?
Hundreds of the world’s largest enterprises, including 20% for the Fortune 50, across finance, technology, and media use Avi for their business critical applications.
Is Avi still BADaaS?
Of course we are, and so are you!
Prior to acquisition, Avi Networks popularized BADaaS (Beyond Application Delivery as a Service) with t-shirts, stickers, and other swag. Avi Networks owned the trademark on the acronym and will continue to use it as part of VMware. Want a BADaaS shirt? If you’re an enterprise in need of better load balancing, schedule a demo and we’ll find a way to get a shirt to you.
