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.

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.

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.

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.

We have been using Radware Alteon for almost two and a half years.

It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability.

It is scalable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of scalability.

I would rate their support an eight out of ten. It can be better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I would like to see future enhancements in security, specifically in threat protection. That would definitely make it a 10 out of 10.

We've been using Radware Alteon for less than a year.

It's pretty stable.

It is scalable. We use it to protect our mail application, so Alteon is used by approximately 1,000 users.

The customer support is an area that can be enhanced, in terms of response time.

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.

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.

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.

The solution is cost-efficient.

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.

We are using Radware Alteon in our data center as a link load balancer, service load balancer, and ADC.

In our data center, the biggest problem was handling the traffic. We have more than 9,000,000 consumers or electricity utility users. Handling the traffic was a little difficult, and the site was going down every one or two hours. We connected with multiple load-balancing companies such as RA Network, F5, Radware, etc. We found Radware Alteon to be the best because of three things. The first one was the product. The second one was the solution they provided, and the third one was the support team. The security features were also good, and we could use Pulse Secure for third-party SSL integration. The availability of the product was very quick. These were the main benefits of why we went for Radware Alteon 6420s.

Radware Alteon helped us to balance the links. Our data center is connected to almost 519 locations, and we have more than 9,000,000 users. Radware Alteon helped us to do the perfect load balancing so that the MPLS link and the ILL link that we are using in the data center get perfectly utilized, and there is no downtime. We have reduced the downtime for customers.

I like the ADC feature and the global certificate feature.

There are a few areas of improvement. It can be improved by combining the web application firewall (WAF) facility.

The sandbox feature should be there. We have previously used an RA Network product for load balancing. They have a feature called Sandbox, but that feature is not there in Radware Alteon. This feature helps us to improve performance and security for application delivery.

Its GUI can be improved. Its GUI is a little old.

We are based in India, but we get better support in other time zones. If Radware can establish a bigger support center in India so that we get support in Indian time, that would be helpful. In the international time zones, we get perfect support, but during the Indian time zone, we face a little bit of difficulty. There is a lot of waiting time. The turnaround time is also high during the Indian time zone, but during the international time zones, we get immediate support.

The scalability and reliability of the product are very good. Not much improvement is required there, but some security features can be improved.

We have been using Radware Alteon for the last four years.

Its stability is good, but it could be better.

There are add-on facilities for integrating with third-party SSL for security purposes. These facilities make this product scalable. Link load balancing, service load balancing, and the ADC part have scalability. If we do not have the physical nodes, we can get the virtual nodes, so this product is highly scalable.

I have taken the help of the experts and support multiple times. One instance was related to the upgrade to the Golden OS version, and one instance was related to the sanity check of the Radware configurations. I have also taken support for SAP link load balancing and implementation of third-party SSL. The support from them was great.

I would rate their support an eight out of ten. I have reduced two points because of the issue of support during Indian work hours. Their support during international times is very quick. Another issue is the email response time during Indian hours. It takes almost four hours. Radware is our hyperactive device, and in case it goes down, because of the delay in response, we might cross the SLA, but fortunately, it has never been down because we have the infrastructure in HA mode. We have one Radware, and there are active and passive nodes.

We were using F5 as a load balancer. We switched to Radware Alteon because it was very cost-effective. Another reason was its reliability and robustness. F5 was only doing the link load balancing, but with Radware Alteon, we got three features in the same product. We got ADC, link load balancing, and service link load balancing in a single package. The security feature for integrating a third-party SSL was also available. It helped us to implement all the demands of the customer for whom we implemented the data center.

In terms of the deployment model, it is a private data center, and the cloud provider is AWS.

Its deployment was straightforward. There was no complexity. We received multiple training sessions from the Radware team on configuration, taking backups, etc. We had also used the Alteon product previously for other engagements, so it was not a critical task. It was just a one-day or two-day learning process to get familiar with the environment. We already had the product knowledge.

We got an integrator called Robert Bosch. We had three people for deployment. You need only three people. One person is enough to do the mounting and hardware installation. You need one person who has good knowledge of application load balancing and how ADC works. You also need one person as a backup. These three people are enough to do the deployment of a single small site.

In terms of maintenance, it does not require much maintenance. It requires regular preventive maintenance such as OS upgradation or patch degradation, which we have done on our own. We have not faced any challenges compared to the other products that I have used in previous engagements, so in terms of maintenance, this device is good, and it has the ability to manage temperature and humidity. At the physical and configuration level, we have not found much difficulty in maintenance. The cooling system and the fan are perfectly placed. We have not had any hardware faults. It is a good product, and we are able to manage the product well.

Its pricing is very good. It is very competitive. Radware Alteon is the leader in the market. At a lesser price, we get a good product and also good support. Other vendors who provide load balancers charge separately for two items. You have the hardware cost, and you have the support cost, whereas, in the case of Radware, you get both in a single package.

We got a margin of up to 25% on the product. We got support almost free of cost. It was a very good deal with Radware. It was a win-win situation at both ends.

We did not evaluate other products. Radware Alteon was the first option given by the client. The client had specified Radware Alteon specifically because it had all three features. It was a bid requirement.

We found it valuable even before the purchase because of its specification or datasheet. When we compared the datasheet of Radware Alteon 6420s, it was a lot more attractive. It had more features than its competitors, so we realized its importance before the bid, but after using the device, we found it easier to implement as compared to other products.

I have already recommended it for multiple projects in our organization. I would advise selecting a proper model of Radware and also evaluating the specification. That is because if the specification is different and the model chosen is different, things would not work. That is the first point. The second point is that before purchasing the product, refer to the datasheet of the Alteaon product. I would also advise connecting with their presales team. During the purchase, we got connected with the Hyderabad office of Radware, and we got a lot of knowledge.

In the PoC model, if we go for any Cisco product, we have the GNS3 tool or a web synthesizer. Similarly, if Radware can have a web synthesizer before buying the product that can be implemented in a virtual environment or in a testing environment, that will help us evaluate which product suits us the best. The second is the proper guidance from the SMEs. These two things will improve Radware sales and help with expansion.

We have used the out-of-the-box integration feature. We use OpenShift, but I have not worked with the automation script libraries for the orchestrator. With Radware Alteon, my role was to finalize the vendor and do the commissioning of the hardware. Most of the configuration part was done by another team from my company. My role was to select the product, get it connected to the Internet, and then do the setup of the network part. It was more of link load balancing.

I would rate Radware Alteon a nine out of ten.

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.

The most valuable feature of Radware LinkProof is that it supports link load balance.

Radware LinkProof’s customer support could be improved.

I have worked with Radware LinkProof for one year.

I rate Radware LinkProof a nine out of ten for stability.

The solution is scalable, and I rate Radware LinkProof a nine out of ten for scalability.

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.

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.

Radware LinkProof is neither cheap nor expensive. I rate Radware LinkProof a six or seven out of ten for pricing.

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.

The solution is used for load balancing.

The DGP, routing, L2, and L3 switches are the most valuable features of the Radware LinkProof.

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.

I have been using the solution since 2017. My company has a partnership with Radware LinkProof.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. Two administrators are using the solution presently.

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.

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.

Price-wise, the solution is a reasonable one.

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.