The network is becoming more application centric. The data center has continued to evolve and so have the requirements placed on the network. The network must be able to route application traffic based on the information within the URL or even details within the application data. It is not enough to monitor an application; now, if a particular transaction within an application is not responding or is slow, the network must alert operations. A new class of networking products has emerged to address all these needs. They evolved from server load balancers (SLBs) and can be thought of as next-generation SLBs. A new name was needed to differentiate them from SLBs -- They go by application switch, application front ends, and application delivery controllers (ADCs), with ADC slowly becoming the most common term.