NetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.
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VMware NSX
Score 8.8 out of 10
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VMware NSX is network virtualization technology. VMware NSX is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
Citrix NetScaler is suited to any environment where hardware load-balancing, application delivery or SSL offloading is a requirement. It's a product that can be used to manipulate traffic flows in a multitude of different ways and its only limit is the protocol, application and imagination of the administrator. It's not a product that includes helpful wizards to guide the admin through each process gracefully. While it is a fairly intuitive product to use, it's not for someone who is not initiated into the ways of networking and network protocols and communication. Nor is this a product that would lend itself solely for the usage of single usage scenarios where small traffic flows would be expected (although if desired the VPX product would probably suffice in that specific scenario depending on the environment)
Our high-security environments require end to end encryption, but also tend to have larger budgets. Since beginning utilization of VMware NSX, we've been able to meet the unique requirements for our high-security clients, but it does have a large price tag that goes along with it. This isn't a particularly well-suited solution for environments with tighter budgets, but it definitely provides security where we need it and are willing to pay for this solution
Broadcast Suppression: By suppressing broadcast traffic, we have been able to deploy a single VDI network in a /18 network space, allowing for rapid growth and proper DHCP lease timing for a VDI instant clone environment.
Networking HA: Leveraging internal mechanisms for high availability, it provides disaster resiliency to a virtual networking environment.
Cost Savings: All available features of NSX are licensed simultaneously. Load balancers, firewalls, and routers are all licensed as features, not per object, allowing for the deployment of as many of these objects as are needed.
I gave the NetScaler a 7 here because the system once configured and deployed is very easy to use. However, if you did not deploy the system and do not have the fundamental background knowledge then you will have trouble using the product in general. Overall it is a great product and service but does typically require professional services to be deployed.
Overall, our organization's experience with Citrix support is that support can be hit or miss. Oftentimes it takes multiple attempts and much longer than desirable to obtain a viable solution for issues experienced with their products. It would be great to see Citrix invest time, effort, and almighty dollars into improving their support and bug fix process across the board.
Netscaler has more features than F5 BIG-IP APM product and easier to manage with friendlier user interface for network admins. It was more cost efficient as well and if you have a Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop environment, it is more compatible with those products as well. Our annual maintenance cost is lower as well.
We use both Cisco ACI and VMware NSX, and while they have different strengths and capabilities, I would recommend VMware NSX, as it can be used in all VMware environments, without costly physical infrastructure changes. Cisco ACI provides some of the same capabilities, but not all. It's focus relies on physical networking changes.
