An application delivery controller (ADC) is a computer network device in a datacenter, often part of an application delivery network (ADN), that helps perform common tasks, such as those done by web accelerators to remove load from the web servers themselves.
ADCs are intended to be deployed within the DMZ of a computer server cluster hosting web applications and/or services.
Starting around 2004, first generation ADCs offered simple application acceleration and load balancing.
[citation needed] In 2006, ADCs began to mature when they began featuring advanced applications services such as compression, caching, connection multiplexing, traffic shaping, application layer security, SSL offload, and content switching, combined with services like server load balancing in an integrated services framework that optimized and secured business critical application flows.
[1] Until leaving the market in 2012, Cisco Systems offered application delivery controllers.