High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! An Application Delivery Network is a suite of technologies that, when deployed together, provide application availability, security, visibility, and acceleration. Gartner defines Application Delivery Networking as the combination of WAN optimization and Application Delivery Controllers. At the data center end of an ADN is the Application Delivery Controller, an advanced traffic management device that is often also referred to as a web switch, content switch, or multilayer switch, the purpose of which is to distribute traffic among a number of servers or geographically dislocated sites based on application specific criterion. In the branch office portion of an ADN is the WAN optimization controller, which uses objectless caching techniques to reduces the number of bits that flow over the network, and shapes TCP traffic using prioritization and other optimization techniques. Some WOC components are installed on PCs or mobile clients, and there is typically a portion of the WOC installed in the data center.