I am using Radware Alteon as a load balancer. It's used to simplify balancing connections between servers for a larger application in my organization. This allows me to manipulate many applications to better serve my organization.
Radware Alteon VA ADC Secure - 200Mbps
Radware | 32.6.0.0Linux/Unix, Ubuntu 14.04 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Simplify load balancing with intuitive GUI and robust analytics
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It provides us with logs about all of our application's transactions, enabling us to trace problems. The analytics help us pinpoint the root cause of issues like TLS problems and trace previously unanswered requests, enabling solutions with given analytics abilities.
What is most valuable?
The simplicity of the GUI is what I like the most about Radware Alteon. It provides logs about all of our application's transactions, which allows us to trace problems and identify issues such as TLS problems. The analytics help us pinpoint the root cause of various issues, enabling solutions with given analytics abilities.
What needs improvement?
I know they are working on it, however, I would like to see an improved community presence, similar to the one for their main competitor, F5. There are forums with questions and answers from customers, which is currently lacking for Alteon. More materials are difficult to find in the network, so increasing community and documentation would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Radware Alteon for several years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is good. There have been no notable issues related to downtime or bugs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability of the product at a seven.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support deserves an eight out of ten. Their customer service is quite reliable.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and not so complex. It took a couple of days with three people involved.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was handled by our internal team with three individuals involved.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Radware Alteon. If someone wants an effective product with good capabilities, they should consider this solution.
I rate the product eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Easy to manage and easy to integrate with third-party applications
What is our primary use case?
We are a data center company, and we need load balancers at our end so that the load is balanced. These are network load balancers, and they are helping us to balance the overall traffic at our end. Because we are a data center company, we host a lot of customers. We host more than 800 customers in our data center, and that itself is a big use case. Earlier, we were using it only in one data center, but now, we are using it in two data centers, so we have two load balancers, one at each site, and we are about to configure global load balancing between both of them.
How has it helped my organization?
We are a data center company, and we used to see a lot of traffic management issues. Since the implementation of Alteon two and a half years ago, we have been able to load balance the entire traffic that is coming in. It gives our customers good performance. Customers are happy with the traffic management and the load balancing feature. The customers are more satisfied now than before it was implemented.
The integrated applicant protection is extremely good. Integration with third-party applications is easy in the case of Radware Alteon. This is a critical feature, and Radware has made it very simple.
We have also used the out-of-the-box integration feature, and we have also customized some integration with the help of our Radware partner. We have integrated with vRA/vRO. Ansible is going to be used along with my OpenStack in the new load balancer that we have attached.
The automation script libraries for each orchestrator are good. That is the reason the integration is simplified. If these automation scripts were complicated, integration would have been difficult, but because of these automation scripts, integration has become so easy, robust, and simple, and we are able to integrate third-party applications within a very short period of time.
What is most valuable?
The best part is that we are able to manage it easily. It is easy to manage and easy to integrate with third-party applications. It is also easy in terms of overall support. The installation itself was very easy. These are the most likable features about Radware load balancers.
What needs improvement?
Their support can be better. The Radware management is very proactive. We can connect to anybody in Radware Management in India. We can even connect with the MD of Radware India. However, their lower level staff should be more proactive towards the customers.
In terms of features, we have had issues with SSL in version 5208, and we asked them to improve it on the SSL front. They have improved the new one. Currently, we are using 6024. In this version, SSL integration and the integration layer are a lot more simplified and secure. This was missing in the earlier version, but in the new version, it is simplified and resolved. In the earlier version, firmware upgrades also used to take slightly more time, whereas, in the new version, there are no issues at all.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Radware Alteon for almost two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate their support an eight out of ten. It can be better.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use anything before Alteon. We were without a load balancer when we started the operation. It was becoming very difficult to manage or load balance the traffic. Since we implemented it, life has become simple for us.
How was the initial setup?
It is a hybrid model. In the first implementation, we did not face many issues. There were some traffic issues related to utilization, but they got resolved. We are now implementing the second one, and we are also going to implement global load balancing. Overall, things are much simpler now. They have improved its simplicity.
Its maintenance includes only firmware upgrades and nothing else. We do not see any maintenance issues.
What about the implementation team?
We have a Radware partner. This partner is called RAH Infotech. They do the implementation along with our team. There were two people from the partner side and four of our team members. There were six people.
We did not receive training from Radware on how to use Alteon. It is also not required. It is very simple. We did not need any training. When our partner implemented it, we learned it along with that.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is directly proportional to the improved satisfaction of the customer. Earlier, the customers were not satisfied, whereas now, customers are extremely satisfied because their traffic is balanced. They know that they are getting the best performance. The throughput is the best. When the customers are satisfied, the ROI of the system is already achieved.
We could see its value in two months from the date of purchase. It took almost three weeks to implement. After that, in two to three weeks, we started observing. We started seeing the value from eight weeks onwards.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is the best in the industry. It was better than the competition, and that is what made us go ahead with them. In any product, we look for features and functionalities, product support, management connection, and pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at F5, Citrix, and Array solutions. We went for Alteon for four reasons. I have 30 years of experience, and at least for the last 15 years, a load balancer meant only Radware. We never heard about other products, so we were aware of Radware load balancers. This was the first reason.
The second reason was the management connection. If you have a management connection at the topmost level, things become much easier, so the product is good, and the management connection is there. We have signed for the highest level of support from them.
Another important factor was the market buzzword. People believe that in the CISO platform category, Radware is among the best products in the market today.
The cost was another factor. We were able to get the best rate from them as compared to other competitors.
What other advice do I have?
It is the best in the market. It is simple. It is not complex, and pricing is also very competitive, so you can go ahead with it.
Overall, I would rate Radware Alteon an eight out of ten. There is always room for improvement.
Adds a secure layer in front of our servers, protecting them from malicious actors
What is our primary use case?
We have deployed Alteon to our cluster to provide load balancing of the applications. We also utilize the security functionality, which is a WAF on top of the load balancing.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has added a secure layer in front of the servers, protecting them from malicious actors, especially the actors who are targeting our application.
And the analytics have definitely helped save time, about 20 to 25 percent, when troubleshooting, due to the breadth of monitoring and the visibility that the solution offers.
What is most valuable?
The best features are the
- security through the web application firewall
- functionality that the solution offers, being a load balancer with the security functionality on top of it
- ease of administration.
The integrated application protection is very good.
Pretty much every feature is as promised.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see future enhancements in security, specifically in threat protection. That would definitely make it a 10 out of 10.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Radware Alteon for less than a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We use it to protect our mail application, so Alteon is used by approximately 1,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is an area that can be enhanced, in terms of response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had a different solution before but not one specifically like Alteon. For load balancing we used different solutions from Citrix and Barracuda.
The integrated WAF in Alteon is much easier to administer as compared to the other solutions. That aspect is 50 percent better than those solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was pretty straightforward. It took a few weeks and the fine-tuning, as per the customer's requirements, took one or two months.
We have it in one location but in multiple departments. Alteon is sitting in front of the server farm and the users in different departments are accessing these servers. Alteon acts as a security layer before the traffic gets passed to the actual servers.
Maintenance is required, of course, and we have two people involved in that process. But Alteon has helped to reduce our maintenance overhead by about 20 percent.
What was our ROI?
It's too early for us to see ROI. Still, we have absolutely seen time to value with Alteon. The moment the solution was implemented, we started observing the logs, which helped us fine-tune the policies. The visibility decreased the time to value helping us tweak the policies and get the boxes ready for production.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is cost-efficient.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Alteon and I would also recommend a proof of concept because every customer's environment is different. But it can definitely add value, considering the feature pack the solution provides with security and WAF, especially on top of the load balancing.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Supports link load balance and has good stability
What is our primary use case?
Radware LinkProof is used for link load balancing. Whenever many servers are connected with Radware LinkProof, users can use their logins to use a firewall. And when a firewall is unavailable, Radware LinkProof automatically switches to another firewall.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Radware LinkProof is that it supports link load balance.
What needs improvement?
Radware LinkProof’s customer support could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with Radware LinkProof for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Radware LinkProof a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, and I rate Radware LinkProof a nine out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Radware LinkProof an eight out of ten for customer support. Whenever we raise a case at their site, it takes three to four hours for their customer support people to communicate with us.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy. Radware LinkProof takes three days to deploy.
You have to understand the different areas where you have to provide Radware LinkProof and where you have to increase it. Then you have to configure them one by one along with the proxy configuration so that it will work from outside to inside.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Radware LinkProof is neither cheap nor expensive. I rate Radware LinkProof a six or seven out of ten for pricing.
What other advice do I have?
One person can do the configuration for Radware LinkProof, but more people will be needed to complete the configuration on time if you have multiple devices.
Some people have a virtual license, while others have a license that needs to be upgraded. Depending upon the location, one or more technical persons are required for the solution's maintenance.
Many people use Radware LinkProof, and it is available for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
I would not recommend Radware LinkProof to anyone because it only supports load balance, not DoS and WAF. If you have larger offices in different locations, you can use Radware LinkProof inside your offices. However, if you introduce it in a space open to the internet, you will have to use a separate device for DDoS and WAF.
Overall, I rate Radware LinkProof an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
An exceptionally stable and scalable solution for load balancing
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used for load balancing.
What is most valuable?
The DGP, routing, L2, and L3 switches are the most valuable features of the Radware LinkProof.
What needs improvement?
The solution lacks HA configuration. In comparison, Alteon has a better HA configuration. Plus, the 30.5 version and 30.0 version of Alteon have some differences in relation to the HA configuration.
The HA configuration feature is important as it enables a failover with a cluster of more than LinkProof.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution since 2017. My company has a partnership with Radware LinkProof.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Two administrators are using the solution presently.
How are customer service and support?
I contacted their technical support regarding the SysTrack migration. Still, they could not give a proper solution as I could not give them the exact data.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. The deployment takes around half an hour if you go into all the specifications and functionality. Only two people are needed for the deployment process.
Initially, we configure the solution and test for functionalities like HCR and whether the load balancing is happening correctly. Once that is checked, we move into production and then upload the device for one week. If it is functioning well, then we remove the existing device. We are following the same procedure for all servers, storage, and firewalls, as we have faced issues with power fluctuations before this.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Price-wise, the solution is a reasonable one.
What other advice do I have?
Contact the technical support team and implement the suggested steps in case of migration. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, the production will get impacted.
I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.