Global application delivery controller (ADC) revenue grew 10 percent in Q4 2013 from Q3 2013, and finished 2013 at $1.75 billion, up 4 percent over 2012, said Infonetics Research.
ADC virtual appliances are going mainstream, accounting for 14 percent of ADC revenue in Q4 2013; Citrix is the market share leader in this segment.
F5 continues to lead the overall ADC market, but Citrix was the big winner upon Cisco’s exit from the space, gaining 5 points in market share.
In Q4 2013, WAN optimization revenue is up 4 percent sequentially, but remains on an overall downward trajectory, down 8 percent from the year-ago 4th quarter.
Vendors are adding mobility functionality to WAN optimization products to drive new revenue while waiting for the cloud to have a positive impact.
The top 3 vendors in the WAN optimization space are Riverbed, Cisco, and Blue Coat, said Infonetics Research.
“ADC revenue is growing fast as cloud services, hybrid cloud, and the shift to cloud-architected data centers create demand for virtual appliances,” said Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics Research.
“Hardware-based ADCs aren’t going away anytime soon. They still provide the performance required by larger-scale deployments, and vendors are working to fold in other services such as security, application traffic monitoring, and predictive analytics. This will keep the market for hardware-based appliances healthy even as a portion of the ADC market turns to virtual appliances,” Grossner added.
