In the fast-paced world of IT, every second counts. The difference between seizing a competitive advantage and lagging behind can come down to how swiftly applications are deployed and how efficiently they run. Traditional legacy load balancers are now proving to be bottlenecks that hinder faster deployment of applications and innovation. We will delve here into the urgent need for speed in application deployments, the pitfalls of relying on legacy load balancers, and the transformative power of VMware Avi Load Balancer.
Legacy Load Balancers: The Architectural Relics
Legacy load balancers, many of them are still hardware appliances based are not designed for cloud operating model. Their product architecture has not changed much since 1990s. They make IT and applications team crippled with following challenges.
Snail Speed, Dissatisfied Application Teams
With legacy load balancers, life cycle of provisioning new VIPs (Virtual IPs) can take anywhere from few days to many weeks. This sluggishness in deployment can seriously impede application deployment timelines. Imagine the frustration of the application teams when they’re shackled by long waiting periods just to get their applications up and running.
Tickets Chaos
Legacy load balancers often follow a convoluted process of creating multiple tickets with various teams. For creating new VIP, tickets are also serialized for IP address allocation, DNS registry, Firewall configuration, Certificate management and load balancer configuration to add additional delays. There is also often back and forth clarifications between application and networking teams as tickets do not have complete or right information to act upon. Collaboration becomes a juggling act, and the ticket review cycles add additional delays.
Messy Configurations
Configuring even basic features on legacy load balancers can be a time-consuming ordeal as some legacy load balancers require to write complex and error prone TCL scripts for even basic load balancing functions like HTTP redirect or content switching. This challenge multiplies as many networking teams do not have TCL programing as their core skill set. Each TCL based configuration requires careful attention and manual intervention, leading to an increased risk of errors. Moreover, IT team also need to check the hardware capacity constraints of legacy load balancers before enabling any new VIP. If there is no spare capacity for new VIP, team must wait for many months before new hardware based legacy load balancer is ordered, received and deployed.
Growing Pains
As the number of applications, VIPs, data centers, clouds continue to grow, the delays to deploy VIPs compound further. IT teams need to act now, otherwise pain will continue to grow further.
The VMware Avi Load Balancer: From Snail to Supersonic
Amidst this urgency for rapid application deployments, VMware Avi Load Balancer emerges as a beacon of hope and transformation. Avi Load Balancer uses a modern software-defined scale-out architecture. It provides elastic autoscaling, built-in end to end analytics and full automation for cloud operating model. Avi enables following outcomes for application and networking teams.
Instant Gratification, Happy Applications Teams
With Avi, the process of provisioning new VIPs is revolutionized. What once took weeks can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes. This dramatic reduction in deployment time liberates the application team to focus on what truly matters – crafting exceptional applications and deploy them faster.
Zen with Automation and Self-Service
Automation lies at the heart of the Avi. Very few tickets are required as it automatically acquires IP address from IPAM, registers DNS entry, acquires SSL certificate, updates NSX route & firewall rules and much more. This automation streamlines the deployment pipeline, eliminating manual bottlenecks. For supersonic speed for application team, IT teams can enable self-service for application team for routine tasks like add or delete a VIP, add or remove a server in load balancing pool. Moreover, the auto-scaling functionality ensures that IT teams need not to worry about hardware capacity constrains while provisioning new VIPs.
Easy-Peasy Configs
Most features in the Avi are enabled by default or can be configured with simple UI clicks. There is no need to write complex, messy TCL scripts for key features like HTTP redirects or content switching. Why write scripts when you can just click and configure? This straightforward approach ensures that the network team spends less time wrestling with configurations and more time optimizing app performance or doing more valuable or strategic things.
Take Control Now
Take control now unlike legacy load balancers, often tied to specific hardware, Avi is software-based, scale-out architecture. It is built for speed with extensive automation. This agility means you’re not held hostage by the limitations of your hardware based legacy load balancers. Scale across all applications in data centers, clouds, and even hybrid environments with ease. Its time to make your application teams happy and more productive.
Embrace the Cloud Operating Model with Avi Load Balancer
In an application economy where speed is paramount and delays are costly, upgrading to VMware Avi Balancer is a necessity. Leave behind the frustration of sluggish application deployments, endless ticket juggling, and configuration complexities. Embrace the future of rapid application deployment and updates and cloud operating model. Transform your IT landscape and let Avi be the catalyst that propels your business forward. Don’t wait – the need for speed is now. Learn more and attend a workshop for deep dive.
Meet the Author
Pankaj leads product and solutions marketing and go to market strategy for NSX at VMware. He advises CIOs and business leaders for technology and business model transitions. In prior roles at Cisco and Citrix, he led networking, cybersecurity and software solution marketing.
