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NetScaler ADC

NetScaler ADC
Formerly Citrix ADC

Overview

What is NetScaler ADC?

NetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Citrix NetScaler has been widely used by users for various purposes, showcasing its versatility and value in multiple scenarios. One key …
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Review of citrix adc

6 out of 10
May 17, 2022
Incentivized
We use it for virtual desktops and provide it as a service to other organisations. It allows us to manage the desktops remotely and …
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Pricing

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What is NetScaler ADC?

NetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

Configure Citrix ADC for HA configurations??

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Demo: Content Inspection with Citrix ADC

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Citrix ADC: Exploiting CVE-2019-19781 and how to mitigate against future vulnerabilities.

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Product Details

What is NetScaler ADC?

NetScaler ADC Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

NetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 7.3.

The most common users of NetScaler ADC are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(134)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Citrix NetScaler has been widely used by users for various purposes, showcasing its versatility and value in multiple scenarios. One key use case is the implementation of Citrix NetScaler as an access gateway, providing secure authentication with a two-factor login process. This has allowed users to protect sensitive information such as health records and address data loss prevention. Another significant use case is the utilization of Citrix NetScaler's load balancing capabilities by server administrators. This feature enables them to update or patch servers one at a time without any production downtime, ensuring smooth operations and uninterrupted service.

Organizations have embraced Citrix NetScaler to enhance their application and service availability through load balancing, guaranteeing high levels of service and reliability for end users. Furthermore, the content switching feature has proven effective in routing web traffic to the appropriate back-end resources. Consultants specializing in virtualization have leveraged Citrix NetScaler's features like single sign-on to storefront and infrastructure component monitoring to improve security and performance. The software has also been instrumental in providing fault tolerance for critical applications, facilitating seamless transitions between app servers in case of failures.

Users from various departments and locations, including manufacturing, shipping, and sales, have relied on Citrix NetScaler for global access to their Citrix environment, ensuring business continuity. It has served as a front end for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, enabling remote access for users and boosting flexibility and productivity. Additionally, Citrix NetScaler has been deployed as a load-balanced gateway for application and desktop delivery, offering robust security measures, monitoring capabilities, and an application firewall.

The flexibility and ease of use offered by Citrix NetScaler have garnered appreciation from users, particularly in low bandwidth situations and remote or out-of-office settings. It has also enhanced the security of WAN edge solutions while ensuring a consistent user experience across multiple application and desktop delivery solutions. The implementation of Citrix NetScaler has addressed parking issues by enabling secure remote access for employees, facilitating work from anywhere and accommodating special needs.

Citrix NetScaler has been used as a primary load balancer for web applications, delivering load balancing capabilities and an additional layer of security through its Web Application Firewall. Users have found the wide array of functions and features provided by Citrix NetScaler useful for load balancing, content switching, gateway access, and posture validation, resulting in an improved user experience. The software has also been leveraged to manage and deliver virtual desktops remotely and securely, saving time and enhancing efficiency. Furthermore, users across the globe have benefited from Citrix NetScaler's speed and flexibility in accessing applications from cloud services, enhancing productivity and accessibility. Users have utilized the software primarily in their accounting department for tasks such as managing DST, Argus, shared drives, and other applications. It has been widely adopted by employees from various departments to publish and access applications like DST, Argus, shared drives, and more.

Citrix NetScaler's versatility and wide range of features make it a valuable tool for organizations across industries. The product has proven to be an effective solution for securing sensitive data, ensuring high availability of applications, improving performance, and enabling remote access. With its load balancing capabilities, content switching functionality, and single sign-on feature, Citrix NetScaler offers users enhanced security, efficiency, and ease-of-use. Whether it's protecting health records with two-factor authentication or seamlessly transitioning between application servers during failures, Citrix NetScaler has consistently provided solutions to meet the diverse needs of users.

Wide range of configuration options: NetScaler has been praised by many users for its extensive array of configuration options, allowing administrators to tailor the utility to their specific server monitoring needs. This flexibility in customization has garnered positive feedback from reviewers.

HTTP Redirect/Rewrite feature: NetScaler's HTTP Redirect/Rewrite feature has received high praise from users for its ability to protect and rewrite URLs. This functionality is especially important in industries such as healthcare where privacy is a top priority.

Access Gateway with data loss prevention and customization options: Users have appreciated the Access Gateway offered by NetScaler, which provides valuable features like data loss prevention and customization options. Specifically, the ability to set up two-factor login for enhanced security has been highlighted by reviewers.

  1. Documentation needs improvement: Some users have expressed that the documentation could be enhanced, particularly in providing specific examples related to the command line and GUI. They believe that better explanations and more clarity would be helpful.

  2. Command Center is lacking: Several users have described the Command Center as an afterthought or stepchild, expressing their dissatisfaction with its functionality and usability. They feel that it needs significant improvements to meet their expectations.

  3. Configuration complexity: Users have mentioned that configuring certain features can be complex and time-consuming. They find that the initial configuration process requires a lot of effort and knowledge, and tweaking and fine-tuning during setup can also take up considerable time.

Users have provided several recommendations for Citrix ADC based on their experiences.

Firstly, users suggest that Citrix ADC is a powerful tool that can meet most load balancing needs. It is highly recommended for any organization looking to provide secure access to applications or virtual desktops. Users have found Citrix ADC to be extremely powerful and feature-rich, with great security tools.

Secondly, users recommend researching Citrix ADC as it offers better pricing compared to other load balancers like F5. They believe that it is a cost-effective solution for load balancing and SSL offloading.

Lastly, users mention that Citrix ADC is easy to manage and configure, particularly for regularly used load balancing and SSL offload features. They suggest trying and deploying Citrix ADC to take advantage of its capabilities.

It is important to note that while Citrix ADC is considered a good alternative for load balancing, two-factor gateways, SSL offloading, or application delivery, some users caution that it may not be suitable for those without experience in network and interaction protocols. Additionally, while Citrix ADC is praised for using storefront/xenapp, users recommend considering other options for load balancing and traffic management purposes.

In summary, the common recommendations include the versatility and power of Citrix ADC, its competitive pricing, and ease of management. However, potential users should evaluate their specific needs before implementing this solution.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use ADC for load balancing, monitoring, security, application firewall, and gateway within my organization. The ADC is a Swiss Army knife of networking and a terrific tool to use for load balancing and secure web servers and services. This tool has a very clean interface and excellent CLI functionality for more experienced users.
  • Load balancing.
  • Gateway Traffic.
  • Application Security.
  • Networking Segregation.
  • Authentication workflows.
Citrix ADC is perfectly well suited for organizations that are looking to perform load balancing, web server security hardening, exposing servers and services through a DMZ in a secure manner, providing access to Citrix/Horizon/VDI environments, and allowing secure access into corporate networks in a selective manner without the need for a full-scale VPN which has a lot of added risks.
  • Load balancing.
  • Gateway
  • Application Firewall.
  • Monitoring
  • App Flow.
  • Increased security.
  • Increased uptime.
  • Better UX for external users.
We chose Citrix ADC over Kemp and F5 due to additional integrations with various products such as Citrix/Horizon/Monitoring tools. We additionally chose ADC due to better ease of use and ability to have the appliances be virtual or physical, with the configuration being a simple migration of code which provided flexibility to be able to do a hybrid environment with ease.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Citrix ADC product line offers a wide array of functions and features for securing user access to our environment. We like how this product can be used for many uses (load balancing, content switching, gateway access, posture validation, etc). Delivers a better user experience.
  • Load balancing and Content switching
  • Boost employee productivity
  • Protect applications and APIs
  • Slow support
  • Convoluted API system
  • Dashboard Can be enhanced to simplify viewing
The primary use case is the hosting and delivering of mission-critical web applications where multiple users need access both internally and externally. we use Citrix ADC for SSL offloads and security, secure remote access, loads balancing, and application firewall, web application firewall. We have deployed ADCs on the cloud or on-premises. Citrix ADC is less appropriate for companies that do not have any critical web applications.
  • Load balancing and content switching
  • SSL offloading
  • Gateway access
  • Increase in the revenue due to high-availability and resiliency of mission-critical systems
  • Enhanced end-user experience
  • Secure the environment
  • Easy to manage & upgrade software
  • Stable code
  • User-friendly GUI
  • Citrix ADC can cluster up to 32 physical or virtual appliances together. consolidation process is far more complicated with F5 BIG-IP
  • F5 BIG-IP is more expensive
  • Despite its seeming advantages, Citrix ADC remains less popular, lagging behind F5 BIG-IP, which remains the market leader
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are leveraging Citrix ADC (NetScaler) for several different use cases. We originally bought it to replace Citrix's old Secure Gateway software to proxy user sessions into our many Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments. This is the Gateway feature. We are also using it for load-balancing services. This is for both Citrix products but also other products like Exchange, Oracle, etc. We are using GSLB features to make these services available across multiple data centers.
  • Citrix Gateway
  • Load balancing
  • Global Server Load Balancing
  • Monitoring via ADM
  • At times it seems like there is a flurry of firmware updates needed to remediate security vulnerabilities which creates some overhead.
  • Out of the box automation using ADM is a bit lacking
  • Nit picking but occasionally there are minor config changes that need to be done via CLI or GUI but nothing significant.
Citrix ADC is well suited for a wide range of use cases. It offers very flexible options for load balancing within and across data centers. I haven't personally used every feature. I have looked into Application Firewall features which appear to be very powerful but with that comes some overhead in tuning to ensure you don't end up causing impacts to your products with a bunch of false positives.
  • Citrix Gateway
  • Load balancing
  • Global server load balancing
  • Pooled license model allows for very flexible use of assigning ADCs to multiple locations and specific use cases
  • There is a minimum to get into pooled licensing model.
  • Expanding the pooled license model is extremely simple and cost effective.
Our company uses both Citrix ADC and F5 BigIP. This is mostly due to team preference. F5 seems to require the use of separate types of devices to do multi-site load balancing while Citrix ADC functionality is the same software on all devices you implement.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are an SMB so we use the Netscaler VPX version of Citrix ADC. It acts as our main firewall for application delivery operations. We host a Citrix Web Interface and application farm behind it. Having users frequently in low bandwidth situations, our Citrix ADC implementation allows us to host the apps in our data center while requiring just scene shots and mouse/keyboard clicks from the user's side. We have been running it for 6+ and have had no security issues in that time frame. It allows us to avoid the complexity of a VPN in running all data through the Netscaler.
  • The GUI interface is fairly easy to learn making ramp-up time faster than some similar products.
  • It is used by thousands of companies around the globe so finding free support on Google is usually quite easy.
  • The virtual implementation version of the product runs on a Linux-based hypervisor install so no additional licensing is needed for the OS.
  • When used in conjunction with a Citrix Web front/Storefront, the integration is very tight making the passing of packets very quick.
  • Even in the lesser VPX versions, there is the ability to have a cluster of Netscalers to allow for uptime capability.
  • Although the GUI is easy to use, some of the more complex situations require knowledge that is not common among the average IT person.
  • The system makes it very hard to change and update SSL Certs.
  • Some adjustments do require leaving the GUI and going in via Putty/telnet/SSH to use the command line.
  • It mostly works well with other Citrix products.
Citrix/Netscaler ADC is well suited for any shop that plans on publishing VDI-based applications or machines from a Citrix-based environment. The strong integration between the Netscaler and the back-end Citrix infrastructure cannot be beaten when it comes to having a 99% uptime-type solution. Having a Netscaler allows shops to publish apps via the standard internet without the need of worrying about VPN or other security measures You can add a VPN on top but the basis of the Netscaler is to allow the publishing in a clientless environment outside the Citrix client itself. if your back-end VDI infrastructure is not mostly Citrix-based, the Netscaler may work for you but it will be a bit more touch and go as to compatibility and uptime.
  • VPNless SSL Secure communications
  • Broad support via other companies using it.
  • Ability to cluster (load balance) the NetScaler for better traffic performance and less downtime.
  • Ease of use via a GUI.
  • It has saved a tremendous amount of money and manpower by allowing for broad support without the need for a VPN.
  • The security functions within Netscaler enabled our business to pass additional IT-based audits.
  • Having a full Citrix stack from front to back makes our business look more professional both to our users and outsiders.
Since we are primarily a Citrix shop, we did very little additional searching for traffic management appliances. However, we did review the possibility of using Citrix-based products, such as ASAs, via a VPN configuration to meet a similar need. Although we could have made this setup work, it was clumsy and much less stable than going with a Netscaler solution. So, as mentioned elsewhere in this review, a big piece of knowing whether the Citrix ADC is for you comes down to what you are protecting with it.
Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer), Citrix ShareFile, Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp), Citrix Workspace, Hyper-V, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Jira Service Management (Jira Service Desk), Tableau Online, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for virtual desktops and provide it as a service to other organisations. It allows us to manage the desktops remotely and securely instead of going down to the individual offices to manage so can save us some time.
  • Virtualization
  • Publishing VDI image to users
  • Hard to manage with too many different organisations to cater for
  • Hard to customise for single users
It is more suitable for virtual desktops in the company. We provide virtual desktops for many different organisations and it gets harder to configure when all of them login through the same portal. Some of them require customisations but we try to maintain as standard image so we are not able to customise for them
  • Virtualization
  • Security
  • Too expensive for charities
  • Too expensive to setup
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop), Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
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