Avi Networks, the startup selling distributed, virtualized application delivery controllers (ADCs), revealed Time Warner Cable as a customer this week at the OpenStack Summit in Vancouver.

Note that Avi didn't announce the carrier as a customer. In fact, Avi officials wouldn't confirm the relationship when I asked.

But a tipster told us Time Warner Cable had spoken at Avi's booth on Tuesday. Sure enough, Avi's conference handouts list a TWC representative as a speaker.

[caption id="attachment_26164" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Click to enlarge. You'll see Avi Networks namedrop Time Warner Cable; Cisco and Nuage; and Red Hat and Mirantis.[/caption]

You'll note that Cisco Cloud Services is also listed as a customer. (UPDATE: It turns out Cisco was just a guest speaker; the word "customer" on the card is in error.)

Avi's Cloud Application Delivery Platform (CADP) targets massive scale, spinning up virtual load balancers managed by a logically centralized controller.

The company claims to have a jump on Layer 4-7 players such as F5 and Citrix, which are virtualizing their appliances to make themselves more attractive for the cloud. Having started up just three ago, Avi claims it had a blank-slate advantage in creating a virtualized, hyperscale-minded ADC.

The increase in OpenStack's popularity has helped as well. Built with distributed computing and storage in mind, OpenStack lends itself to the idea of distributed Layer 4-7 elements, says Umesh Mahajan, Avi's CEO. "OpenStack leveled the playing field," he says.

Photo: The T-shirt Avi has given away at the last couple of OpenStack Summits. You want to see a close-up? Sure you do.