We performed a comparison between Citrix NetScaler, F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), and Loadbalancer.org based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about F5, Citrix, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)."One feature that works really well is the SSL VPN. It's very easy to set up and you can go very granular with it. You can define what user groups get what kind of access and the management overhead is very low."
"The MAS integration for HDX Insight has provided teams with significant visibility into network performance of the user's connection."
"For NetScaler, our major use cases are database load balancing, PowerVPN VPN access gateway, WAF (Web Application Firewall), and content switching."
"The solution is very stable. We don't have any downtime or issues of that nature."
"The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment."
"Citrix Director has been great. It gives us one pane of glass to be able to monitor what's going on with the user sessions as well as to keep on top of the virtual desktops, any servers that may be offline or behaving suspiciously, or any troublesome spots like disconnections. We also use Citrix Studio for maintaining the actual servers that are hosting these applications. We use it for delivery groups in case we need to modify delivery groups in regards to which groups have access to which applications. It has been very helpful."
"It is simple for both IT specialists and customers."
"Load Balancing and SSL offloading are key features."
"LTM."
"The load balancing function, the monitors that you can create, and iRules programmability are most valuable."
"The tech support we got from F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager directly was pretty good."
"Load balancing generally brings high availability and a bigger ability to scale out. In some cases, it brings security, depending on how it is configured."
"The capability is at a seven or eight out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of F5 BIG-IP LTM is it helps our delivery team to make policies and rules for application."
"The feature I find the most valuable is the support infrastructure."
"Where we are finding the AWS version helpful is when we are trying to scale up new environments. AWS Marketplace helps here a lot."
"The support we have received from Loadbalancer.org has been good."
"The features I find valuable in this solution are the ease of managing the logs on the WAFs, the ease to identify break-in attempts into the network, the front-end firewall, and a more specific firewall."
"The user interface precludes need to be well versed with Linux IPVS command line. This make it easy for junior team members to participate in managing load balancing needs."
"Loadbalancer is easy to use. It performs well, with low latency."
"The SSL Layer 7 load balancing is valuable."
"It's pretty much a Swiss Army knife for managing all the load balancing techniques."
"It does what it’s supposed to do which is balancing an important intranet site we are using, so if one server dies, the second becomes active straight away."
"The connection that this solution helps our servers maintain has been most useful."
"It can be difficult to setup."
"Citrix ADC is a complex product, and it takes time to understand these things. But the documentation is poor, and the deployment is difficult. Integration could also be better because what I find is that you cannot easily integrate the panel in the second sector. What I have found is that in the last index, there is a limitation when getting validated. Technical support could also be better."
"I would like to see them make it easier to do some of the more complex things. For example, a web re-direct requires two pieces to it. You have two ports and when people want to go to a web page, they just type in the webpage that on the backend it will redirect them to a secure link. The initial setup of that is cumbersome because you have to do it twice. There are things that can be replicated. The IP address, for example, is the same. This change would go a long way. Don't make me do it twice and don't make me have to read tons of documentation to figure out how to do it. Ease of configuration for some of the more complex processes would be a good improvement."
"Too many bugs in the software and it's always difficult when you need to update."
"The tool needs to add a feature where we can access the network policy access manager."
"The GUI should be improved."
"ADC from Citrix has added functionalities from other products and the usability is very difficult for someone who is used to a simpler user interface, it's a little bit of a mess to use."
"There are some drawbacks, such as using EUG for specific configurations. It could be improved."
"For a future release, I would like to see more features in the cloud."
"The pricing model has caused some frustration. My clients implemented the solution and later wanted to upgrade the features but the pricing structure was complicated. There are other solutions with better pricing models."
"I think the logging could be improved."
"Currently, the product offers everything we need. I can't recall any features that may be lacking."
"I would like there to be more device security. I would like the tool to support SSL links, along with SSL and TLS."
"In terms of pricing, it could be more competitive."
"While the licensing is good through the AWS Marketplace, it is more expensive than what you could buy yourself."
"The SharePoint SSO part has some room for improvement."
"I would like it if Loadbalancer had the ability to make rules for specific shared bots."
"We could enhance the security aspects of the load balancer."
"The automatic refresh of the System Overview webpage: It sometimes has an extra webpage reload (after a change) before you see it is executed. This can be confusing."
"If I have to say something, I suppose they could add an automated configuration backup to an FTP location (or something similar) so you don’t have to manually do it. I don’t see this as a problem, of course, as the configuration rarely changes and we only need one backup, but maybe for other users that feature would be handy."
"They're mostly designed to balance a particular type of traffic. I wanted to load balance DNS, and they just don't do it the way that we wanted to. So they're not used as DNS load balancers."
"Possibly a more graphical overview page (with colors) to give a two second overview to see if everything is working fine."
"Loadbalancer.org's complexity could be reduced."
"It would be great if there was a way to gain access to the graphing data, to create custom reports. If we had a way to use the graphing data, we could use it to present certain information to our client, such as the uptime status for their service."
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