A10 Networks Thunder ADC Reviews

Carrier-grade NAT is the purpose of using A10 Networks Thunder ADC at Turk Telekom Mobile.

It solved the CGNAT performance issues and, within two years, it had no problems and no outages.

The Deterministic CGNAT feature.

I would like to see the scalability numbers for the virtualized version which are comparable to those I noted in my answer on "Scalability."

One to three years.

Every six months we made active-passive changes and upgraded to the latest version of the firmware. But we didn’t have stabiliy issues.

It scaled well for our numbers, up to 3 million subscribers for our most crowded region.

Technical support was mostly provided by another company, but A10 also responded our questions on time and accurately.

We used F5 load-balancers for the same purpose before, but those devices weren’t meant to be built for CGNAT. F5 devices built for CGNAT were also functioning well according to PoC tests.

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.

F5.

I would advise doing comprehensive PoC tests for your specific purpose, for all products.

We use A10 Networks Thunder ADC for the application delivery controller. 

The solution is flexible. 

The tool's load-balancing feature should improve. 

I have been working with the solution for three years. 

I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten. 

My experience with the support team is good. 

Neutral

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

A10 Networks Thunder ADC is complex, and you need to spend time installing it. I rate it a seven out of ten.  

On-premises

We are in the government sector and we use this solution for load balancing and application management.

The solution is user-friendly and the CLA troubleshooting is easier compared to other solutions.

There are competitors that have more features.

In a future release, I would like to see VAS, application policy management, profiling, and the SSL encryption and decryption features should be on the system instead of having a separate SSLi system. Additionally, they should combine the products into one solution instead of having separate products, such as encryption and decryption, and load balancing.

I have been using the solution for approximately four years.

The technical support is good.

I previously used F5 BIG-IP.

The implementation is easy.

The price of the maintenance support is too expensive.

I have evaluated Avi Networks.

If someone has experience in Cisco Networks, the CLA hierarchy and configuration are 90% the same making this solution easier to use.

I rate A10 Networks Thunder ADC a seven out of ten.

One of the main advantages of A10’s line of ADCs is that they offer an all-inclusive licensing scheme for their products. This scheme enables enterprises to save significantly on costs, and makes managing licenses easier. A10’s ADCs is a solid, high-performance platform. It supports advanced traffic management and scripting features and broad set of security features using a third-party web application firewall. Lastly, A10’s ADCs have IPv6 support which gives it an edge over other offerings in the market should IPv6 functionality be required.

Though A10 has a solid offering, they have an on-going legal battle with Brocade. Depending on how this plays out eventually, this is a risk that must be evaluated carefully. Support can also be a problem if you are in the United States, as its main contact centers are in Asia. Application integration with third-party development tools is also a problem, as there are limited integration options available. Finally, A10’s products has limited web acceleration support for mobile users. This can be a problem if the application is intended for this purpose, but custom scripting is available to help alleviate this issue.

Overall, A10’s ADCs are a good product with the price many companies can afford and have features that even some high-end ADCs. I recommend it for those companies looking for advanced features offered by the product yet wants to keep costs down. However, the future might not be bright for this company, and I highly suggest that existing and potential users follow the progress of their legal battle with Brocade. Long term support might suffer if they lose their case, which a cause of concern for both existing and future customers.

The load balancing, proxies, and internal proxies are valuable features. 

• Improvement of the grid look
• Intuitive UI
• Syntax 
• Configuring

It is very stable. 

The scalability is really good. You can easily unify many devices at once. ADCs are simple to configure and each device is powerful. We have two engineers managing and monitoring multiple systems and it works well for us. 

For the past two and a half years, we have not had a need to open a tech support ticket. It is really stable. In the past, our experience with tech support was that they were extremely helpful. 

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 pricing and licensing are really easy because we bought the hardware and it has all of the license availability. The licensing is embedded in the hardware. We do not have to import any other license. The pricing is a third of the price of the F5 competition. 

We looked at A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs F5.

We are distributors and have been for a long time. We provide products to clients.

It's a very friendly solution, easy to configure, and it's very flexible.

The interface and integrated custom applications can be a bit difficult. They need to be improved.

In the next release, I would like to see improvements with the integration.

I have been working with this solution for more than three years.

The stability is good for us. We have not experienced any issues.

I have no complaints about the technical support. They have very good support. They guided us and helped us through the tool.

The initial setup is straightforward and very user-friendly.

It is easy to deploy and customize.

The price is good they are very comparative.

Definitely, I would recommend this product.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

On-premises