This whole Web 2.0-sucking-the-life-out-of-servers problem? Yeah, it’s nothing new if you’ve been paying attention.

I am not one prone to fits of smug arrogance. I don’t generally ever say “I told you so” (even if I did) or tsk-tsk when you failed to listen to some nugget of wisdom and it bites you some place…unpleasant. Don often tells me I should, and he will if I won’t, but most of the time I simply bite my tongue and let it pass on by. It’s my job to offer up the information, not force it down your throat. Horse, water, blah, blah, whatever.

For some reason - maybe it’s the spring air, maybe it’s because I’ve written so much on the subject, maybe I just didn’t drink enough coffee this morning - I just can’t let this one pass. I can’t.

Larry Dignan, editor in chief at ZDNet, states in a discussion of Citrix’s latest announcement, “That's an interesting point considering a lot of people probably haven't pondered how Web 2.0 apps can drain servers.” [emphasis added]

Well, I’ve not only been pondering it, I’ve been writing about it. A lot. So much so that I sometimes feel like I’m talking to one of my kids: lecture, rinse, repeat. Cause we’re not talking about just recent discussions here, we’re talking stuff written years ago.

In fact, I’ve been writing about this since 2006. October 26, 2006 to be exact. In what was my last cover story for Network Computing Magazine, I wrote about the potential dangers of Web 2.0, which included – yes – the very real risk of resource drain upon servers. Here, let me share a quote:

Web 2.0 and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) will dramatically change your infrastructure in terms of monitoring, management, deployment and availability. The load on both network and back-end servers could become crushing. [emphasis added]

After joining F5 I wrote more on the subject. There’s this white paper on AJAX, and this one on SOA because if you think about it for just a minute, SOA has many of the same connection management issues associated with Web 2.0 and AJAX. Decomposition and reuse is great for architecture and development life cycles, but not so great for servers and the network.

But just in case you weren’t paying attention to those white papers (cause I know how it is; they’re vendor white papers, tainted by the dark side and all) I also penned articles for Dr. Dobb’s on the impact of Web 2.0 technologies – like AJAX – on the network and the challenges associated with delivering those applications. Both focused heavily on connection management and the strain put on servers.

The Impact of AJAX on the Network  

• The AJAX Application Delivery Challenge  

And in case you didn’t read Dr. Dobb’s, there was yet another one on the same subject in Redmond Developer.

• SOA + WOA = NOA.

What? You don’t read developer-focused publications? Okay, how about a few blog posts instead:

• SOA & Web 2.0: The Connection Management Challenge
• The Impact of the Network on AJAX
• When Reuse Becomes a Four Letter Word
• Slidecast: Scaling Web 2.0 with Application Delivery
• Articulate: Web 2.0 and the Impact on the Network

Sensing a theme? Yeah, I thought you might. This whole Web 2.0-sucking-the-life-out-of-servers problem? Nothing new. The solution to the problem? Been available for quite some time. In fact, almost every application delivery controller out there can deal with the majority of the problems associated with Web 2.0 and server load, especially in terms of connection management.

Duh.

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