Riverbed Research Report Sample

Executive Summary

IT organizations have two primary functions: applica- tion development and application delivery. Within most IT organizations, the application development function is highly formalized. In contrast, within most IT organizations there is typically nascent recognition of the existence of an integrated application delivery function. One key symptom of the lack of a formalized effective application delivery function is that in the vast majority of instances that a key business application is degrading, that degradation is noticed first by the end user and not by the IT organization. Another key symptom is that when application degradation does occur, most IT organizations are unsure how to best resolve the issue.

This report's goal is to help IT organizations develop the ability to minimize the occurrence of application per- formance issues and to both identify and quickly resolve those issues when they do occur. To achieve this goal, Kubernan synthesized its own knowledge with that of roughly a dozen of the industry's leading vendors and a similar number of IT organizations. Kubernan also sur- veyed hundreds of IT organizations. Given the breadth and extent of the input from both IT organizations and leading edge vendors this report represents a broad consensus on an application delivery framework that IT organizations can modify for use within their organization. To make the framework even more actionable, this report contains roughly 40 conclusions that IT organizations can use to shape how they modify the framework.

Below is a listing of some of the factors that complicate the application delivery function. The impact of these factors is not dissipating any time soon. If anything, the impact of each of these factors will increase.....