Citrix NetScaler VPX Reviews

I have been working with all Citrix NetScaler VPX platforms: BLX, VPX, MPX, SDX, with all of them. I have completed more than 300 deployments with several different customers. I work with virtual and desktops, GSLB, Web Application Firewall, and all features that exist on Citrix NetScaler VPX.

I have been doing projects with customers integrating solutions because they have specific needs and require either new deployments or help solving issues on existing deployments. With Citrix NetScaler VPX, I have worked with environments with 10,000 users or more. I work with customers where the maximum number of users I have worked with is 30 to 35 with SDX. With Citrix NetScaler VPX, I have worked with environments with 5,000 users or fewer. They are using Reverse Proxy, Content Switching, Load Balancing, Cache Redirection, AAA, virtual servers, multiple configurations, and Multi-Factor authentication with Gateway and VPN capabilities.

The needs depend on your requirements. If you need to work with remote users, Citrix NetScaler VPX Gateway and virtual server features are very important. If you are providing websites, you need to use Content Switching, Traffic Management, and Load Balancing. When working with those configurations, you need to always implement SSO and two-factor authentication. You must authenticate users and always require a second factor. You must not work with just user and password authentication. You always need to configure Multi-Factor authentication with Citrix NetScaler VPX for access to the websites that you are load balancing. When connecting to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops applications, this is very important. The most used features could be Traffic Management, Content Switching, Load Balancing, and Citrix NetScaler VPX Gateway.

I have been deploying in many customers because you are encrypting and decrypting on Citrix NetScaler VPX and you offload the backends. However, several customers always want to use SSL end-to-end with no SSL offload configuration. If you need safety, you need to configure all the servers, Citrix NetScaler VPX and also the backends for safety reasons. You are introducing additional load on the backends, but nowadays most customers want to use SSL in all the ways and in all the communication paths.

I have been deploying Web Application Firewall in many customers. Web Application Firewall has many configurations. Citrix NetScaler VPX Web Application Firewall works at Layer 7. You can configure signatures, which is the easy way to configure Web Application Firewall, but there are many security checks that you can configure and you need to talk with many developers to deploy it. It is very complicated. I have completed many deployments, and it is amazing, but sometimes it is confusing for most people because you need to do a lot of work when you configure security checks of Web Application Firewall feature.

I have been working with several different customers in all the fields. Normally, they are not small companies. The companies could be medium to high.

Content switching and load balancing are being used by customers. There are many different applications such as WebLogic, Oracle, websites, Tomcat, and more. There are plenty of web servers such as Microsoft IIS Web Server. It does not matter because you can load balance all kinds of web servers. You can load balance, keep the persistence, and do many things with all the applications and all web servers. Most of them are using HTTP regardless of the version, and also using WebSocket protocol.

Stability is an area for improvement. Sometimes stability issues occur. Stability can be improved by avoiding security issues. There are many problems with Citrix NetScaler VPX. There are many CVEs.

Stability issues sometimes occur when you deploy and when you update. It is very often that you have many issues because the deployment and updates introduce many issues. This is a huge problem if you have been working a long time with Citrix NetScaler VPX. It is not just Citrix NetScaler VPX. It also happens with MPX, SDX, CPX, or BLX. It is the same.

I have plenty of issues.

Some issues occur with SDX and the hardware crypto SSL cards. I have many problems with Citrix NetScaler VPX and stability with many customers. Some versions and new release versions had many issues. They were not working and not doing what Citrix NetScaler VPX was supposed to do and it was not working well.

It depends on the customer. I tend to deploy on-premise, on-premise, on-premise. I also have many users who are working with cloud and I tend to deploy their Citrix NetScaler VPX on cloud.

Customer service has been horrible. It has been horrible for some time. Since two years ago, it has been a nightmare. I have solved many issues and found many bugs myself. I solve the issues by doing workarounds because they are not able to solve or help me. Sometimes I tend to open the case, but I know that I am going to spend a lot of time wasting my time and trying to work in parallel solving the issues by applying workarounds.

I am totally comfortable with the initial setup.

I am an integrator. I integrate for several customers.

I have done maybe 500 or 1,000 deployments. I have automated many things and it is very easy to configure. You can use NITRO API scripts using PowerShell with several different languages and it is very easy to do it.

The setup cost is a little expensive for some customers. For some customers, this could be an issue.

Nowadays bugs that introduce new features are typical. Some versions are not working well in the initial version. My review rating for this product is 9.