The initial setup was quite straightforward, but take into account that I've been using it for a long time. 

If you come from a Cisco background and you switch to F5, it's quite a big step. A10 is more like a Cisco IOS, in terms of the CLI. The F5 is more Junos OS, CLI-wise. So for me, the migration from F5 to A10 — because we use a lot of Cisco as well, internally — and the setup of A10, was quite easy. The commands are quite similar for configuring the interfaces.

For the migration five or six years ago took, the initial deployment took about two or three days to get the failover and everything else working. The migration itself for about 70 VIPs, took about a month. My recent migration from one unit to the other unit took about two weeks, taking into account the different departments and getting a service window to migrate things.

In terms of our implementation strategy, as is, from the one A10 to the other A10, everything we're load balancing was just a copy-paste and then we made some hardware improvements because we have more 10-GB interface capabilities. We can split the load better between a separate Layer 3 core and our ACI data center core.

The setup was very straightforward but it depends on the solutions you are using in your environment.  In our network we don't configure all the features because we are not using them as yet, but it's very straightforward to configure them.

In our department, setup takes six to seven months, including getting the ADCs, racking and stacking them, and configuring them. Our organization has a standardized, tailored deployment strategy, where we have our own config, but it has to be coordinated with our other switches.

We have four to five people involved in the deployment of the solution. Our local engineers will install it, power it up, and give us a remote connection and then I, as a network engineer, will get in remotely and configure it.

The initial setup was straightforward. The way the box is brought online, A10 has good documentation on how to set it up. The person that I had on my team in charge of bringing this box online had zero A10 experience. Within a week or so, they were able to get up to speed and bring the box online, get it licensed properly, get it updated to the latest code, and put a basic configuration on it.

You plug it up, then it is a next, next, finish type of thing to get it online and operational.

The initial deployment plan was to get the box online, then to load balance some basic traffic and see how it worked. After that, we created some health checks to see how they worked and tested those out. We then tried to create some flex codes to do some basic redirects. We tested them, and those worked. We followed that same pattern when it came to application balancing.

From the network side of things, once we knew that it worked, we then passed it over. We created partitions for each of our application groups and gave them access to the A10 box. They could then configure their own server or applications on the box.

You do need intermediate network skills in order to use the box effectively. It is an advanced technology that you are configuring. It is not like you're just setting up a basic network with a switch and a router. Load balancers can be used for many different purposes: Doing URL redirects, application load balancing, and web load balancing. It can be used a million different ways. It can also be used to do a lot of different security features, such as SSL offloading so you can inspect SSL traffic. Thus, you must have a good understanding of what the box is capable of to be able to configure it.

So far, the solution has supported all of our in-house applications, which are homegrown, as well as the applications that we have purchased from vendors. We haven't run into a situation where we have ever tried to configure our A10 to work with software that was either homegrown or purchased where we couldn't get it to work. The solution has been very successful.

The solution's initial setup process was easy. For the installation, it takes around five minutes.

One person can do the maintenance since it is not required much. So, it's a one-time solution, and its maintenance is fine. The number of people required for maintenance depends on the clients as well. One or two engineers are fine to serve around a hundred clients. If you have a number of devices, more people are needed for their maintenance because of the patching it requires during regular operations. Only for the maintenance, one engineer's fine. However, for regular operations, we need multiple people.

I would put the initial setup at an intermediate level. It is nothing that someone will be able to unbox and do without having some networking or application knowledge. However, if you have a firm IT understanding, then it is pretty simple.

Adding new things takes under 30 minutes.

The initial setup is not complex. It's rather straightforward. 

I'd rate the product five out of five in terms of ease of setup. 

The product has been very good, and, until now, the customer is not facing any problems. They have been happy with the product.

How long the deployment takes depends on the customer and the scenario. In my case, I had it up and running in three or four months with no downtime whatsoever. Typically, it can be a one-day job. 

The solution’s initial setup was easy.

The setup is easy. 

The setup was straightforward. We worked with a support engineer from A10 Networks to plan the setup and they provided a migration tool. It was a straightforward migration when we switched from the AX to the Thunder series. Also, when we switched from F5 to A10 they provided resources to us.

We have it installed globally, so it took about three months to replace them all. The replacement strategy was to do it in pairs in each location, one at a time, to have the least impact with production.

The setup of A10 Networks Thunder ADC is very straightforward. If everything is in order, onboarding one application can be done in a few hours.

The initial setup wasn't complex. A10 helped us with the setup. 

It took seven days to go into production, which was due to number of sites that we were running.

Implementation strategy:

1. It should have the ability, as a load balancer, to manage circuits.
2. Not everyone should have access to it.

I created a replica of the production box. Then, I set up the service, which I put on the load balancer. For 15 minutes, I moved the traffic from my NLB through A10 and monitored the performance. Then, I moved it back and it gave me the confidence that it could run safely. Then, I did the same for all 36 sites that I run. Afterwards, I moved it over to my team.

The initial setup was straightforward. The deployment took three to four months.

The initial setup was straightforward because we had an A10 engineer who came onsite and helped set it up for us. It wasn't plug-and-play. We did have to have some engagement. The deployment took a couple of days. We have continued adding more and more services onto it.

We put it in primarily for Exchange, to do some load-balancing at the time. These days, if we put it in, we'd have a lot more change-control to go through, but back in those days we just put it in, set it up, and away it went.

The initial setup is pretty simple if you have the guide. It's just like a basic switch on any appliance deployment. Deployment is not hard.

When we initially did it, this was a new product, of course, so we had support do the deployment. But when we changed the appliance, I did it myself, moving from one to another and doing the initial configuration. It's more a matter of the paperwork that you do on the network, and how it will change. But the deployment itself on A10, like configuring your settings, etc., takes no more than two or three hours. If you have your paperwork done, it's pretty easy.

When you move into this solution there is a learning curve if you come from another one. But once you get used to it and you know how things are flowing, it's pretty good.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC's installation is complex, and the documentation is very bad. 

The implementation is easy.

The installation is absolutely straightforward. Nothing more to say about that.  

It was easy. The CLI of the devices are universal and we had to make the solution as simple as possible in order to get scalability.

The setup depends on certain situations. In certain scenarios, it may be more complex than others. For example, while the initial configuration may be easy, the environment itself may be complex and that may limit the ease of deployment. It is easy for those who understand their environment.

The initial setup is straightforward and very user-friendly.

It is easy to deploy and customize.