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IT Cyber Security / IT-DR / BC Specialist at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Reseller
Stable with good manageability and visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "Manageability and visibility are good."
  • "The interface needs to be improved because the competition is coming up with ones that are more eye-catching, straightforward, and sophisticated."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and when we need to implement application delivery control then Citrix ADC is one of the products that we suggest to our clients.

What is most valuable?

Manageability and visibility are good.

What needs improvement?

The interface needs to be improved because the competition is coming up with ones that are more eye-catching, straightforward, and sophisticated.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Citrix for three years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are very happy with its stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have no issues with scalability.

Currently, our customers for Citrix ADC are large-sized organizations.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support a seven out of ten. They are okay. When they are investigating a problem then they need a lot of information, and there is a lot of back and forth.

The situation is the same with most of the big vendors.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also deal with Fortinet FortiADC, and one of our clients recently had to switch to Fortinet because of a management decision. Importantly, however, they were still happy with Citrix.

How was the initial setup?

The complexity of the initial setup and length of time for deployment depends on the customer that we're dealing with. If it's a ministry or government then it's going to take a long time. These deployments might take a month to complete. If it's a small or medium-sized customer then it might be between one and three days, and you're finished.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This product is more expensive than some of the competitors.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

In the future, we are hoping to provide more cloud-based solutions. However, at this time, there is not enough maturity, and as such, corporations and government offices want on-premises solutions.

What other advice do I have?

Citrix ADC is a product that I can recommend, without any doubt or hesitation.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
reviewer1089651 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Sales Engineer at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Offers valuable work balancing applications and assists with the customer's communication requirements
Pros and Cons
  • "The work balancing applications are the most valuable feature."
  • "The product could be improved by making it easier to use and easier to implement."

What is our primary use case?

I work as a senior sales engineer and business developer manager and we distribute the Citrix NetScaler AppFirewall. My job is in presales and I'm also a distributor, assisting the company partners.

Our customers are generally enterprise and public companies and our primary use of the product is for security and work balancing applications. Implementation of the product assists with all the applications and the customer's communication requirements. NetScaler can do a lot of things. We make a point of always using the latest version of the product.

What is most valuable?

I think that the work balancing applications are the most valuable feature. The licensing model that Citrix has implemented is very good. It's a pay-by-use system. 

What needs improvement?

The product could be improved by making it easier to use and easier to implement. We've had some difficult problems with that. 

An additional feature they could include more of a firewall, as you would find with Checkpoint, Fortinet or Palo Alto firewalls, which all have specific features for security. It would be good if they could include some kind of technical analysis in the next version but I don't know that is part of the Citrix strategy. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Citrix NetScaler AppFirewall for the past two years.

How are customer service and technical support?

The Citrix technical support is very good and the support from the company sales engineer is very good too. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup can be problematic. The length of time it takes to implement really depends on the project. It normally takes around two weeks.

What about the implementation team?

Our company carries out the implementation, the integration of the solution on the customer's infrastructure. In Portugal, we have a lot of enterprise and public sector implementations and a lot of different products available for mounting infrastructure. Sometimes the older implementations and on-prem implementations haven't been done properly and we need to manage this for the customer and for the implementers. You need to know very well what the customer has in order to implement the solution. 

What other advice do I have?

The deployment model depends on the customer and normally it's carried out by the customer, because NetScaler in Portugal, where I am, isn't well known so we do a proof of concept first for a couple of months and then after the installation, configuration and the customer approves the product, then the department delivers it. 

There are some security problems, there's are DOS problems, different kinds of attacks. Another one is for load balancing the charge of the application because NetScaler is a very good solution to load balance the load off the application itself, from Citrix or from another solution. These are the best cases, security and load balancing.

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
PeerSpot user
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November 2024
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Network & Security Lead at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Real User
Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic but development team's response time could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."
  • "Development team's response time could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We used it to manage a data center hosting environment and had more than 250 HA pairs of Citrix NetScalers (both physical and virtual) to maintain/manage customer environments. Each environment was different, each was a customer-dedicated environment.

How has it helped my organization?

This was a standard load-balancing solution provided to our customers. They didn't have many complaints about the way their traffic was being managed. We were able to handle specific requirements for persistence/stickiness.

What is most valuable?

Content Switching since it provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature.

What needs improvement?

Development team's response time could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No major issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good with the virtual appliance, where you can easily scale using the appropriate license and match up with the appropriate virtual machine.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had a mix of makes/models, as we supported a large customer base, such as F5, Cisco CSS. We have never had a case where we had to switch NetScaler out for another make.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is straightforward if you know basic networking concepts. It doesn't take a lot of reading to set one up.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate NetScaler as a seven out of 10 for good technical support on routine issues, but any issues that needed the development team's involvement took a long time.

If you don't have very specific requirements such as the ASM that F5 offers, this would do almost all tasks as far as load-balancing is concerned (geo load-balancing as well).

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1282383 - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
A stable networking solution for web applications that needs improvement in their customer support
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a stable solution. It crashed only once, four years ago...There is a return on investment using the solution."
  • "The technical support could be better. Whenever I contacted support, I rarely got the solution that we needed. And most of the time, I finished fixing the problem by looking on the internet or by finding documents about the problem on Google."

What is our primary use case?

We use Citrix NetScaler for policy URLs for web applications and RDP for Windows servers.

What is most valuable?

Reducing the content searching to publishing your web application, the OTP for two-factor authentication is the most valuable feature of NetScaler.

What needs improvement?

I wanted to use most features of NetScale, like the Web Application Firewall, but I need to learn how to use it. When we want to use OTP for two-factor authentication, it first appears on the authentication page where we can put the credentials. Then, we are directed to the application page and type the credentials again. But we want to use the OTP and access the web application without typing the credentials again. Typically, if we have an issue in the configuration and ask for a support request, that support doesn't help. They only talked about new implementations and charged me for it.

The customers needed help but did not find the web useful for the tool.

The technical support could be better. Whenever I contacted support, I rarely got the solution that we needed. And most of the time, I finished fixing the problem by looking on the internet or by finding documents about the problem on Google.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Citrix NetScaler for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. It crashed only once, four years ago. We're using the DSLD configuration with two load balancers, two carriers, and two ISPs.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is bad. Whenever I contacted support, I rarely got the solution that we needed.

I rate it five out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I used Microsoft TMG but then switched to NetScaler since it is a better solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex initially. The first time it took about six months to be deployed. But it's straightforward now and takes only a couple of hours. Around four to five people were needed to complete the deployment.

What about the implementation team?

It was implemented through an in-house team.

What was our ROI?

There is a return on investment using the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is undoubtedly very good, but it is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

My experience with the support is not good. Owing to its poor technical support, I rate the solution seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Rajnish Niraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Fencesense
Reseller
Top 5
Seamless integration, robust, and useful UI
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Citrix NetScaler was the seamless integration. Additionally, the UI is good."
  • "Citrix NetScaler has been recently acquired by another company and the support has been negatively impacted, the solution is at its end of life. The support for the solution could improve. The sales team needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The main use of Citrix NetScaler was for application integration. My clients wanted their applications to be managed through Citrix NetScaler.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of  Citrix NetScaler was the seamless integration. Additionally, the UI is good.

What needs improvement?

Citrix NetScaler has been recently acquired by another company and the support has been negatively impacted, the solution is at its end of life. The support for the solution could improve. The sales team needs to be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Citrix NetScaler within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Citrix NetScaler is stable and robust.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Citrix NetScaler is scalable but could improve.

I have three to four customers.

I rate the scalability of Citrix NetScaler a seven out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The video technical support from Citrix NetScaler was satisfactory.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Citrix NetScaler is straightforward. The process is easier than competitors. The solution took us approximately 20 days to deploy because we had many applications that needed to be scheduled.

The requirement was to provide load balancing of multiple applications and publish all the applications behind Citrix NetScaler.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The license for Citrix NetScaler is on an annual basis and it is reasonably priced.

What other advice do I have?

I would not recommend this solution to others.

I rate Citrix NetScaler an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
reviewer1220262 - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Service Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Good load balancing and web application firewall functionality
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is load balancing."
  • "The WAF component needs to be simplified so that it is easier to use."

What is our primary use case?

This solution acts as my web server, web application server, firewall, and load balancer. I also use it for IPSec 4 to IPSec 6 conversion.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is load balancing. This solution will do both global and local load balancing.

The WAF features are very helpful.

What needs improvement?

The WAF component needs to be simplified so that it is easier to use.

In the next release, I would like to see more firewall policy support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Citrix NetScaler VPX for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are a few bugs here and there, but technical support has been able to assist with them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is easy to scale if we have up to ten servers, but much higher and we need to use a different level of license. It is a little bit expensive.

We have approximately 2,000 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

I am quite satisfied with the technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I installed this solution with the help of my own team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our licensing fees including technical support are approximately $3,500 USD.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated a solution by F5, but we found it to be a little complex and we didn't proceed with it.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering this product is that it works best for small-scale industry. I would recommend this for a small business, but not for larger organizations. It works quite well for 1,000 or 2,000 users, but I would not recommend more than that.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user824772 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The most valuable feature would be the permanent server
Pros and Cons
    • "There are some features which are missing.​"

    What is our primary use case?

    The primary use for using it is the wholesale application and VDIs.

    I have been working the cost factors, while the performance and application are good, the factory cost brought back to you is not. Therefore, we are currently comparing the product with Microsoft RemoteApp.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature would be the Citrix permanent server.

    It is cost-effective, if you consider the permanent server. Also, the management is easy with no downtimes. 

    What needs improvement?

    There are some features which are missing.

    What I am looking for is something like OneDrive. We are facing an issue with OneDrive on the XenApp and XenDesktop. We can't use OneDrive with what we have. So, a fully, operational OneDrive support is what I am looking for.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Trial/evaluations only.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Stability is good.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scalability is good.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We like working with Citrix technical support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have been working with Citrix technology for the last 10 to 13 years. We have not switched solutions during this time. 

    How was the initial setup?

    From a Citrix perspective, it was straightforward. From the application perspective, there are some tweaks that we need to do. So, we are working on those tweaks.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Currently, we are evaluating the cost prospective from the BDA cost prospective. We are evaluating Microsoft and Citrix as they are the leaders in this solution. If you compare Citrix and Microsoft RemoteApp, Citrix is the best compared to RemoteApp. RemoteApp is basically meant for a small business use case.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are using Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, but we are planning to now expand into the same product. 

    Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

    • Cost
    • Performance
    • Stability
    • Scalability
    • High availability.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Senior IT Consultant/Program Mgmt at Consultant
    Consultant
    Extremely hard to purchase. Easy to setup core features.

    Valuable Features:

    Load Balancer and Access Gateway

    Improvements to My Organization:

    Allowed secure access to authenticated user not on the network without having to download client side software

    Room for Improvement:

    Alert Management

    Use of Solution:

    2 years

    Deployment Issues:

    Minor issue setting up VeriSign Certificates

    Stability Issues:

    No

    Scalability Issues:

    Not applicable - We were only setting up 4 Virtual Servers

    Customer Service:

    6

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user4401 - PeerSpot reviewer
    it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor

    Can you tell me, please, how many NetScaler instances can be hosted on a single physical server?

    Buyer's Guide
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    Updated: November 2024
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    Download our free NetScaler Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.