NetScaler Reviews

With Citrix ADM, one can manage NetScaler and ADC. One can also gather data on remote users, especially information on their bandwidth and the resources they use.

Feature, wise, one of the things that I use is the SSL dashboard to make sure my certificates are up-to-date on my NetScalers. So, it's very handy.

Some features of Citrix ADM are available on the cloud, which could really be helpful if they were available on an on-premise version. At the moment, I can't explain it in detail since I don't utilize the Microapps or StyleBooks in the solution, even though both are available in the cloud version. However, they are not available in the on-premise version. So, I use the on-premise version.

I have experience with Citrix ADM for twenty years. I am a reseller and a partner of Citrix.

It's a virtual appliance, and once it's up and running, it just runs. So, it is a stable product.

Just one solution can handle thousands of users and hundreds of ADCs. So, it is a very convenient tool to use.

Currently, the support team is experiencing a shortage of staff, making it difficult for users to reach someone knowledgeable.

The solution's initial setup was very easy. If ten means super easy, I rate it only an eight on a rating bar.

I would recommend those planning to use the solution, especially if they use or have ADCs or NetScalers in their environment. There are a lot of people who don't use the solution when they should.

There's still a lot of scope for growth and many features that can be added to the solution. Also, I'm unfamiliar with some of the features, so I can't speak on all of them now. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We deploy it for enterprise customers and some schools that are located in Denmark.

The load balancing is one of the most valuable features. We have several load balancing solutions like F5 and Fortinet.

I will try to migrate all the tools to the cloud because there is more lab and more VPN scalability available in the cloud. It is not available on-premises.

I have been using Citrix for the past four years. 

Of course it is stable. We have had some errors, like authentication issues, although those are easy to fix.

It is scalable enough. 

We started with 100 users and now are up to 2,500.

We have contacted their technical support. They provided their contact details, the account manager details, so we contacted them frequently and as required. They are very good. 

We are also familiar with F5.

The initial setup was straightforward. It's deployed in our central location and four different other plants. It's not complex for those types of environments. Including the network setup, the entire deployment took 45 days. 

I did the deployment together with my team. The deployment required four advanced engineers. 

We also evaluated Fortinet but we found that it is not that good a solution in terms of it being user-friendly and it was not very scalable. Comparatively, FortiGate is a good option, and reading-wise I think it's good.

I would tell someone considering this solution to know your use cases and get good documentation. 

When we experienced an issue, we made documents and we can share those documents and share all the details to help provide others with solutions. 

I would rate it a six out of ten. 

From a NetScaler perspective, in terms of LTM, not GSLB, NetScasler has performed very well. In comparison to F5, it holds its own.

For some of my deployments, NetScaler has been strictly a replacement to get something new in. It was cheaper than F5. We took a chance on it. The return on investment is the fact that we spent less money on it. It does do its job and it holds well against F5.

I can turn on features without actually owning a license. I can test them out, I can use them for a while, and then I can be licensed up. That's awesome. I don't have to have a license immediately before I can start to deploy things rapidly, rapid deployment is a plus.

When I compare it to F5 from a hardware or software perspective, they both have their glitches. From a software perspective, either one is not without code bugs.

From an SDX perspective, having the ability to spin up a VPX, the way we spin up our regular features, quickly and have a 60-day trial while we spin up VPXs will give us the opportunity to do more proof of concept work quickly without having to buy the license and download the VPX. A feature like this would be helpful. 

I would also like to have video tutorials so that when you click the help link, you have the option to go to the Citrix forum and get information and help from other people and other users. Something that points you out to a tutorial video link that is a general overview. 

I liked the fact that is NetScaler out-of-the-box is intuitive. You can catch on fairly quickly. Especially when you're doing an advanced alert. You cannot do a re-direct quickly without going through some documentation and if nobody's done it before, they don't know what you're talking about. That is when a help link would be useful that could direct you to the right tutorial video and then it could point you directly after that video to further direction and explanation. Straight to the meat of things. Something like a quick video tip tutorial would be great. Whereas if you're an F5 customer, you don't get something like this and you do have DevCentral that you can go to get information, but it requires you to read through many documents and comb through trying to configure something that is complex. They should deliver the information quickly to end users to make it even faster and more efficient to deliver our own applications and services to customers.

Video files can be large, they don't necessarily have to be on the box itself, but even through a link that quickly goes to their website or YouTube, whatever platform, could work. 

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 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. 

It has high stability. I deployed these in hospitals where lives matter. The contention was whether or not to go with F5 because it's the leader in the marketplace and they have 70% of the market shares. Even though NetScaler is big, it still doesn't hold the fair market share. NetScaler is the underdog but it is very stable. I've seen it in hospital environments where lives matter, it's held its own, it does what it says it's going to do and it does it well. It's certainly a top contender, if not an equal contender with its counterpart, F5. 

Scalability is very impressive. The way it works is that you can collapse everything on to a couple of platforms, small, medium, and large. The small one is obviously an initial buy-in. The mid one is fairly powerful and is bigger than an 8920. You are limited on the hardware. You get 64 and you get 32 out of the box, which is what you paid for but you can license up the 64. On the other platform, you can start off at 32 with the initial buy-in and then license up from there for a max of around 256 gig. The way they have it is that you are locked in from a hardware perspective.

Their technical support is decent. It could use some improvement. Help desks and technical support are good but you can tell that there's been turnover. We'll have complex issues that we're trying to work through and we would like somebody who's more experienced and not somebody who had just gone through training. Employee retention on the help desk would go a long way. 

NetScaler does the same thing as an F5 and it's cheaper.

There was some trepidation regarding the initial setup because it's new equipment and nobody has had training for it. We were able to figure it out and stand it up. It took some reading and some calls to tech support, but they were helpful when we were first setting it up.

There are the regular license costs and you also have to pay for licenses if you want more DPXs or whatever. A standard DPX is fairly cheap. It's around $7,000. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten because nobody is a ten. I would give it a nine if it was a little easier to pick up. Out of the box it's easy. Anybody who's an engineer can usually pick it up or if they've had previous load balancing experience, it's easy. Obviously, not everybody has that kind of experience. 

Not many of our customers use the solution's web application firewall. We use the solution's IP Reputation and bot protection features. We use the solution mostly as Citrix and Gateway ICA proxy and load balancing. There are a lot of changes with the solution, but Citrix NetScaler has quite a comprehensive portfolio of training courses.

The licensing model and technical support of the solution could be improved. The exchange rate with the local currency contributes a lot to why some of our customers are looking at alternatives.

I have been working with Citrix NetScaler since it first came onto the market. I have been using the solution before the Gateway feature was a part of NetScaler, and it was a stand-alone product. I have been using the solution since Citrix acquired the product.

Citrix NetScaler is a scalable solution.

Citrix NetScaler has many features. The solution's basic features, like load balancing and Gateway, are pretty easy to use. It becomes complicated very, very quickly in large environments because it has many features. I would recommend the solution to other users.

There are much cheaper alternatives if you just need the solution for basic load balancing. There are no alternatives to Citrix NetScaler if you want to use it as a Gateway and access it from the public network. Integrating Citrix NetScaler with the existing infrastructure and applications is pretty straightforward once you get the hang of things.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

By using this solution, we are accessing our server's resources in a secure manner. It has complete end-to-end encryption, and it provides secure data access. It doesn't matter where our users are sitting or from where they are coming to our network.

It has been a very useful solution for us. It has allowed us to manage the application accessibility even during the pandemic. We have complete visibility of application accessibility and any malicious activities. We also have an analytics report. Thus, we are able to provide support for our infrastructure in a very secure manner.

Content filtering, security layer, and application customization features are the most valuable.

When a new version comes out, sometimes, my existing configuration gets wiped out. They should work on this so that my existing configuration doesn't get impacted with an upgrade to a newer version.

There could also reduce frequent firmware upgrade activities and have a stable version so that once we upgrade it, we don't have to upgrade it for two to three years.

It has been a while since I have been using this solution.

It is very stable. I would give it a nine out of ten.

It has good scalability. I would give a nine out of ten for scalability. It is up to the mark in terms of maintaining the security of my environment while upgrading the product. We have more than 1,000 users. As of now, we don't have any plans to increase its usage. We will definitely increase its usage if there is a need in the future.

Their technical support is good.

I have used other solutions, but they could not fulfill my requirement of application connectivity, printing, and other things. This solution meets my requirements, and I am happy with it.

It is a user-supportive environment. It is easy to add a new feature or platform. Our deployment was done in a phased manner, and it took us a month to complete the deployment.

Its licensing cost is much higher than other products, but it is acceptable because it is a one-time investment, and we are getting our requirements fulfilled when we buy this product. So, there is no issue with the pricing.

I would advise others to first do the assessment of the requirement. Based on the requirements and assessment, you can evaluate the product to see whether your requirements are getting fulfilled or not. Based on that only, you should go for a solution, but I'm sure if you adopt this, you will find it to be a very good solution.

By working with Citrix ADM, I have learned how to work in a mixed and seamless environment while accepting the challenge of providing seamless connectivity in a secure manner to all business users.

I would rate Citrix ADM a nine out of ten.

I use Citrix NetScaler as a gateway to provide secure access to virtualized desktops and applications.

Citrix NetScaler offers robust security features, including SmartAccess and customizable policies, making it a reliable choice for safeguarding user data. The seamless integration with Citrix tools enhances both performance and security, creating a powerful combination for optimal IT environments.

There is room for improvement regarding the pricing policy for Citrix offices. In the past, the gateway was cost-effective, but there has been a shift, and the current pricing seems too high.

I have been working with Citrix NetScaler for many years.

I would rate the stability of the solution as a seven out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of the solution as an eight out of ten.

Tech support for NetScaler can be frustrating. When opening a case, I often spend much time with first-level support, who sometimes lack programming knowledge. The process involves repeating details when the case is escalated to an engineer which causes delays. Overall, I would rate the support as a three out of ten.

Neutral

Before using Citrix NetScaler, I had experience with similar products. I recall working with Citrix Gateway for server access, but it involved a server running an application on a Windows server. I have also dabbled a bit with other vendors like F5 for feature integration. However, integrating with Citrix has been challenging as they are not very open to external integrations.

The solution is quite expensive. Regular security audits reveal frequent vulnerabilities, requiring monthly patches.

Overall, I would rate Citrix NetScaler as a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case is the hosting and delivering of web applications.

The product has helped us a lot with load balancing because we had limited experience with it.

The most valuable feature is the management and application delivery for Layer 7 traffic.

At the current time, the solution is not missing any features that I would like to have implemented.

This is a stable product that we have used since 2014.

This solution is scalable, and the sizing is defined by the amount of traffic. Our first box supports up to five hundred megabits of traffic, whereas our second box supports traffic of five gigabits. We will consider making use of this solution in any project going forward.

We have a contract with the re-seller, who has good expertise. If they cannot fix the issue then they escalate it to Citrix, where the tickets are usually solved. Sometimes this takes a little longer because of the multilevel ticket priority. Ideally, it should be possible for the re-seller to assign it directly to level three.

Prior to this, we used the Cisco ACE solution until the product was discontinued.

The initial setup was a little complex. We needed to choose the right partner to assist us with setup and implementation.

We contracted our re-seller to help with installation and setup. The deployment took approximately one month.

We have a yearly licencing fee, and there are no additional costs.

We used Cisco ACE, and they were the ones who recommended that we switch to this solution. We took their advice and we are pleased with it.

Customers need to look to the future and purchase the right model for their necessities. A new license can be purchased, rather than additional boxes.

I would rate this solution nine out of ten.

Our primary use case is for proxy firewalling. 

In South Africa, we're going through load-shedding. When our primary link goes down I can still get to my Cisco devices and the NetScaler devices on-prem because of the SDN solution. If the internet connection at one of the branches goes down, we can still route them, they still get internet based on the SDN solution through one of the other sites. They can carry on working.

We incorporated all three because of the fact that we have one central proxy server and everything's on an SDN, so we can get any device anywhere anytime.

Security could be improved because then I can get rid of my Cisco firewalls. If they improve the security then I could run my security, my proxy, my firewalling and my SDN solution on one device instead of having to have multiple devices.

We have 55,000 people around the country and we have plans to roll the solution out worldwide.

The initial setup was complex because we've got different applications so the firewalling needs to be done properly and then we actually do IP subnet changes at certain times. We decided to go to all sites. We did a subnet change on all sites and then we deployed NetScaler. We did the head office first and then we went site by site.

Deployment between nine sites around the country took about four weeks. 

We only require one person for maintenance. Deployment took three people. 

The standard licensing fees work in the way that you get one license with it for whatever you're going to be utilizing it for. We integrated the firewall, the proxy services, and the SDN.

We also looked at FortiGate and Palo Alto. 

The advice I would give somebody researching this solution is to do your research properly and see what's the best solution for the company and the company's needs before you make a decision. You can't just randomly pick a device. You have to do your investigations first. Put in proof of concepts, speak to your seniors. You must tell them what exactly is your company requirements and which device is going to suit those requirements the best.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.