Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Radware Alteon comparison

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway offers advanced traffic management and security features for web applications. It includes built-in rules, Layer 7 control, autoscaling, and integration options, providing flexibility and security for managing application traffic efficiently.

Azure Application Gateway is utilized by organizations for securing and managing web traffic with its comprehensive web application firewall, load balancing capabilities, and Layer 7 firewall rules. Known for its ease of setup and integration, the platform facilitates external application access and deploys secure services. While it enhances security with customized configurations, users note areas for improvement such as configuration complexity, pricing, third-party tool integration, and automation. Addressing these aspects can improve user experience and performance.

• Built-in Rules: Pre-configured rules help streamline traffic management and enhance security.
• Layer 7 Control: Offers detailed traffic routing and policies based on application-level information.
• Real-Time Autoscaling: Automatically adjusts resources to meet demand and optimize performance.
• Comprehensive WAF Protection: Guards against web vulnerabilities and potential threats.
• Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with Azure services for enhanced workflow efficiency.

• Traffic Routing: Efficiently directs application traffic based on defined rules for improved performance.
• Security: Provides robust protection for internet-facing applications.
• Ease of Setup: Simplifies deployment and management of applications.
• Flexibility: Supports different application scenarios with customizable configurations.

Industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail implement Azure Application Gateway to protect sensitive data and manage significant web traffic. Its application deployment support and security capabilities make it suitable for businesses needing to ensure secure data exchange and reliable access to online services.

Alteon is Radware’s application delivery and security platform for delivering and protecting applications across physical, virtual, cloud, and hybrid environments. Available as hardware, virtual appliances cloud deployment, Alteon provides local, global server and link load balancing, advanced traffic management, SSL/TLS offload and acceleration, automation, and application optimization, including HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 support.

Through Alteon Protect, organizations can combine Alteon application delivery and on-device security with Radware Cloud Application Protection services, including web application and API protection, bot management, and web DDoS protection. This provides a unified application delivery and security approach across data center and cloud environments.

Alteon supports flexible capacity and deployment through Global Elastic Licensing (GEL), which enables licensed capacity to be allocated and reallocated across supported Alteon deployments as application and infrastructure requirements change.

The platform also supports modern automation and AI-assisted operations. Alteon MCP Server enables application, DevOps, and platform teams to use natural-language intent through an MCP-compatible AI client to create supported Alteon configurations using a guided workflow that gathers required parameters, validates configuration state, and maintains human review and approval before changes are applied. Alteon also supports lifecycle automation and integration through REST APIs, Ansible, Terraform, and Kubernetes/cloud-native environments.

Together, these capabilities enable organizations to deliver, scale, automate, and protect applications consistently across data centers, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid environments.

Alteon supports flexible perpetual and subscription-based licensing models.  Physical appliance pricing is based on the selected Alteon hardware platform and enabled performance/capacity, while virtual and cloud deployments can be licensed according to the required capacity as a subscription. Global Elastic Licensing (GEL) provides additional flexibility by allowing licensed capacity to be allocated and redistributed across supported Alteon physical, virtual, and cloud deployments rather than tying all capacity permanently to an individual instance.

Customers can also purchase application delivery together with cloud-delivered application protection through Alteon Protect, providing a combined subscription model for Alteon application delivery and Radware Cloud Application Protection capabilities.