Pulse Secure unveiled the first new release of its virtual application delivery controller (vADC) the company acquired from Brocade last year.

The Pulse Services Director 18.1 release is focused on bringing greater analytics capabilities to the vADC space. This includes more detailed information about data flows through each application and behavior of applications across virtual and cloud platforms.

Aidan Clarke, senior product manager for Pulse Secure, explained the ability for enterprise IT departments to see the actual flow of application data from different locations can help pinpoint performance issues. He noted this is becoming more of an issue for companies that are having to sift through increasing amounts of data coming from virtual, cloud, software, and microservices architectures.

The Pulse Secure platform also includes centralized backup and restoration of ADC instances and centralized authentication for administration and management of those instances.

Traffic insight can be exported to third-party analytics engines, though Clarke said Pulse Secure was also looking at a true turnkey solution for customers wanting a complete package.

ADCs are used to monitor and help optimize the delivery of enterprise applications on packet-based networks. They can monitor traffic between applications or to a user, and can be integrated into a cloud environment or run as software layered on top of running operations.

Virtualized ADCs are typically the software-only variety. These allow for easier portability between cloud or on-premises locations. Clarke also noted this allows for more fine-tuned pricing models.

“Customers can purchase just the amount of analysis and insight they need and easily add more through our platform to help scale,” Clarke said.

Other companies in the vADC space include Avi Networks, Buoyant, and Nginx.

Pulse purchased the Brocade vADC assets last year for an undisclosed amount. The platform was part of Brocade’s IP networking assets that Broadcom wanted to divest when it announced its purchase of Brocade in late 2016.

Brocade’s vADC was one of the first fully virtualized ADCs. It can be provisioned on premises in a public or private cloud, or even through one of the cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, or Microsoft Azure.

Clarke said the company moved quickly to absorb the Brocade assets. This included moving back to pre-deal revenue levels six months after the acquisition closed.

Pulse was formed in 2014 following the $250 million acquisition by its parent company Siris Capital of Juniper Networks’ Junos Pulse business. Siris Capital also owns Mavenir, and unified communications companies Polycom and PGi.