Radware Alteon Reviews

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.

Neutral

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 use it to load balance all of our applications within our data center and our EDI solutions.

Alteon makes it easier and quicker to spin up services when other departments come to us to deploy applications.

And its analytics have helped us save time, at least an hour or two in a typical scenario, when it comes to troubleshooting.

The most valuable aspect is the ability to customize the types of load-balancing scenarios needed for customized applications. Some of the load balancers on the market today are strictly out-of-hand load balancers for SSL or HTTP. Radware Alteon is most useful for customizing in-house applications based on ports and protocols.

Another great feature is integrated application protection. There are many features you can activate. Some of them are add-ons, such as WAF protection, DDoS, rate-limiting, and connections-per-second per application.

We also use Radware where we do all the programming.

The solution could be more open to additional third-party add-ons being integrated into it.

I've been using Radware Alteon for approximately 15 years.

The stability is almost flawless. Since we've had Radware products, we've had maybe two or three bugs. That makes it pretty darn stable.

Especially if you go with the virtual GEL license, it's very highly scalable.

One of their bright spots is that they have a great TAC for the product.

Positive

We did use another solution, but it was also from Radware. It was called AppDirector, before they acquired the Alteon technology. We switched because that was the path on which Radware was directing all of its customers. They combined the Nortel Alteon code with the AppDirector code and created the new solution with the new load balancers.

The initial setup was straightforward. The product documentation was the best piece.

We received virtual training from Radware on Alteon and it took about five days for our technical team to become familiar with it. The learning curve is probably one of the biggest benefits. If you're familiar with basic networking, it shouldn't be a big learning curve at all.

And it doesn't require any maintenance other than regular software upgrades as they come out. Compared to a competitor, maintenance with Radware is 50 percent cheaper.

We worked directly with a Radware engineer for our deployment. Our experience with them was great.

We have projected seeing a return on investment, but we haven't decommissioned our hardware load balancers yet. Our plan is to decommission all the hardware-based load balancers and go strictly to the virtual load balancers using the Global Elastic License for deployment and implementation.

We have seen time-to-value using Alteon in that we no longer have to deploy a physical load balancer in the data center and pay somebody to go rack and stack it. We can virtually spin it up in 30 minutes in a VMware environment. The time-to-value was immediate.

The pricing is better than the competition. It is getting more pricey as the years go on, as more people are migrating to it, and as the technology gets better. But the pricing is competitive with, or cheaper than, the other solutions out there.

We don't use the GEL (Global Elastic License yet, but we will be moving to it soon.

I evaluated F5. One of the biggest issues with that solution was cost. Radware was much cheaper and much easier, from what we saw, to implement into our type of data center environment.

My advice would be to really look at all the customized options that come with the product, as compared to its competitors. And take into account that their support model is significantly better than the competitors' support models.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I've been using Radware Alteon for several years.

The stability of the solution is good. There have been no notable issues related to downtime or bugs.

I rate the scalability of the product at a seven.

The technical support deserves an eight out of ten. Their customer service is quite reliable.

Positive

The initial setup was easy and not so complex. It took a couple of days with three people involved.

The implementation was handled by our internal team with three individuals involved.

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.

The solution is basically used for load balancing. We do build for load balancing as well. We have several load balancers in the physical and cloud space. We started using it for GTM and also use it for some iRules scripting and to modify the SDP draft.

It was way cheaper than F5, so that was the reason to move from F5 to Radware. In terms of value for money, maybe it's better. F5 is very good. However, it was really expensive. This solution is also quite good, yet costs much less.

It's quite a nice solution. It's like F5. They are very good products and are very easy to use. They're very powerful, you can do a lot of things with the scripting, and also even in the interface and the graphic interface, you can configure other things without going to the scripting, to the rules.

The initial setup is easy and it was quick to deploy.

The solution has been very stable.

Maybe there are a couple of things that didn't work very well. You kind of have the same build and different build for load balancers. It can create some issues. We faced issues where we needed to have some kind of the same balance in different environments. That happened with F5. However, in Radware, you can do it when we move to production and we need to change the balance there. Different environments should be able to have some balance to be completely isolated. That's something that they could really improve to make it really, really isolated.

We’d like the solution to include more security features in the standard license.

We just acquired Radware in the last few months. IT’s been about eight months.

The solution is stable. In the last eight months since we migrated, we’ve had no big issues. Everything is working fine. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn’t crash or freeze.

The scalability is about licensing. You require more bandwidth and more throughput. To scale, it’s about acquiring more licensing. That’s about it.

For example, if you have a license of 30GBs of traffic and may need to support up to maybe 80GBs. You need to increase the license. You can kind of use it on demand, however. If you can change the license every three years, and you can see that your throughput is going to increase a lot, you can scale up.

We have about ten people on the solution currently. We do have plans to potentially increase usage in the future.

Technical support was okay. We opened a couple of tickets, it was okay. They were fast and they fixed the issues.

Positive

We just migrated to Radware from F5 APM. It’s quite new. It's really, really powerful. However, they are very good load balancers.

The setup is relatively straightforward. To do clustering is very easy. It's way easier than F5, I would say.

The deployment was quite fast. The problem was that migrating from F5 took a lot because we had to add the Windows in place and handle the service impact. That said, deploying is fast. If you are in the integration field and you don't have to migrate, it's pretty fast.

How many people you need to maintain the solution depends on the size. However, you might need four or five people.

There was a mix of personnel helping with the setup. I was doing it mostly myself. However, I had the help of professional services from Radware.

For the amount of traffic that we use, it's as good as F5 and way cheaper.

The pricing is much more reasonable than, for example, F5, our old solution.

I’m not sure how much the solution costs. However, my understanding is that it is moderately priced. I’d rate it a three out of five in terms of affordability. It’s not cheaper. However, it is less expensive than F5.

We checked in with Citrix as well. It was also good. In the end, we went to Radware.

We’re just a customer.

We’re using one of the most recent versions of the solution.

It's a very good product, however, if it would work for your company would depend on your needs. It depends on the amount of traffic.

I’d rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use Radware Alteon for data protection and security compliance.

Radware Alteon's integrated application protection is a good choice. It provides better protection for our web applications by delaying access to the interface and limiting access to specific web applications. This centralized and limited access makes it easier to manage our web applications, even if we have multiple users or customers. We have also provided suggestions for a release that includes the customer's recommended modifications and edits. This release is sufficient for cloud-based applications.

Radware Alteon's out-of-the-box integration feature is good.

The automation script libraries for each orchestrator are of good quality. Our team can apply the updates and configure them.

Radware Alteon has improved our organization by providing an interface for connecting 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceivers. This allowed us to increase our network bandwidth and improve the performance of our applications.

Radware Alteon Analytics saved us around 15 percent of the time troubleshooting. The dashboard provides a helpful overview of active alerts and warnings, and we can easily investigate and add new ones as needed. This has made it much easier to identify and resolve issues quickly.

The UI is user-friendly. 

The cloud features are valuable.

The interface implementation can be improved. If any features of the current version need to be upgraded, such as those related to net flow, we need to reboot the system properly. We also need to be able to upgrade any Radware updates related to the version.

I have been using Radware Alteon for one and a half years.

Radware Alteon is a stable solution.

Radware Alteon is scalable. The solution is deployed in multiple mobile locations with over 1,000 users.

Radware Alteon's technical support is excellent.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment took two days and two people to complete. We received training from the Radware team.

The implementation was completed in-house.

The cost of Radware Alteon is mid-ranged.

The GEL licensing is flexible. The GEL license has helped save us around 25 percent.

I give Radware Alteon a ten out of ten.

We have seen time to value especially around the data security and compliance of Radware Alteon. We saw time to value after one and a half weeks of implementing Radware Alteon.

Radware Alteon is a scalable and available application delivery controller that can be used by organizations of all sizes. It offers a wide range of features, including automation, optimization, and migration from older to newer versions.

Radware Alteon is easy for organizations to switch to because it has training portals that provide all the necessary information, which minimizes the learning curve.

The maintenance is completed on a quarterly basis by the vendor.

I recommend Radware Alteon, but it is always a good idea to do a proof of concept before switching solutions.

We are using Radware Alteon as a web application farm for all of our on-premise websites and as a reverse proxy.

The most valuable features of Radware Alteon are the reverse proxy functionality and the SSL offload and hardware.

Radware Alteon could improve the troubleshooting from the command line interface, they could do a better job making it easier.

I have been using Radware Alteon for approximately 10 years.

The stability of Radware Alteon is good.

Radware Alteon is scalable.

We have approximately 10,000 users using the solution globally. We have all of our applications for our web and EDI environment using the solution.

The technical support from Radware Alteon is wonderful.

I rate the support from Radware Alteon a five out of five.

Positive

The initial setup of Radware Alteon is straightforward. The full installation took approximately three to four days.

I rate the initial setup of Radware Alteon a four out of five.

We did the implementation of the solution in-house.

We have received a return on investment using Radware Alteon. It is one of their strong points. You receive the value of your money out of using it.

Radware Alteon is less expensive than many of the other competitors.

We compared Radware Alteon to other vendors, such as F5, and not only was Radware Alteon less expensive but it is more user-friendly in the interface and configuration.

We are going to change solutions. However, we are staying with Radware. The solution we are using is the hardware Radware Alteon 5208 but they make a virtual Alteon now. We are moving to all virtual Radware Alteons instead of physical hardware. The cost of us using all virtual Radware Alteon solutions will be $154,000 over three years. This includes 80 load balancers and 10 GB.

I rate Radware Alteon a nine out of ten.

We use it as a load balancer.

It gives our application more resiliency by providing redundancy so that if one server fails, another one can take over and service the website.

And when troubleshooting, Alteon’s analytics have helped me save about half the time it would take me otherwise.

I like the web GUI. It's very intuitive and easy to use.

The reverse proxy piece is a little bit complicated. If the reverse proxy were easier to implement, that would help.

I have been using Radware Alteon for seven years.

It's very stable. It hasn't crashed on me at all.

It's scalable. We can purchase more licenses to accommodate more throughput.

We have it deployed across multiple locations and we have about 20,000 end-users.

Their tech support is very knowledgeable. I've always liked working with the Radware engineering team. They know their stuff.

Positive

We used AppDirectors, which is also from Radware. We switched because AppDirector was old and was end-of-support.

The deployment was pretty straightforward.

In terms of maintenance, every year we try to upgrade the code on the Alteon, but that's about it. It has reduced my maintenance overhead. It's a very low-maintenance system.

I did the whole deployment, along with my boss and one of my colleagues, and we used professional services from Radware. We received training, which was bundled with the purchase.

We have definitely seen return on our investment. It keeps our business more resilient and with higher availability.

The value in it also comes from the fact that how you manage it, and how you create and do things, is a lot easier. It's also more stable.

I needed a couple of months to get familiarized with it.

I'm content with Alteon's pricing.

The licensing is a little bit complicated because it's based on how much bandwidth you want to use, what the throughput is. Instead of having a throughput limit, it just allows whatever the bandwidth is and bases the licensing on vADCs (virtual application delivery controllers) only. That makes it a little bit complicated.

We did a PoC of F5. We chose Alteon based on cost and ease of use. F5 was twice the cost of Alteon at the time, although that was seven years ago.

Radware is not as well known as F5, so maybe the name is a little bit more obscure. That might be a little bit concerning for some people, but it wasn't for me.

You need to understand how to do low balancing and what it does. And you need to think about what types of features you are looking to get out of a product, such as SSL offloading.

I also use Radware's APSolute Vision, which enables me to manage all my devices—that's the best for me—as well as DefensePro.

We use Alteon to load balance our client traffic between different servers. We provide client support for deploying, configuring and troubleshooting. 

The best thing about Radware is the command line interface which is simple and very user-friendly. This is a very good device because it's easy to configure and easy to troubleshoot. Radware provides numerous guides including configuration, CLI, and troubleshooting. That is a very useful thing to troubleshoot, to configure our Radware devices. 

We've developed a lack of trust in the product because it sometimes behaves unexpectedly. Some issues are not resolved even after troubleshooting multiple times and then we have to reboot the device before it can be resolved. The solution could be more robust. The GUI should be improved because it's old and very traditional. One of our concerns is that Radware is not going to provide us with a free trial demo license so that we can install the product in our VM for our engineers to check, troubleshoot and study the product. 

I've been using this solution for over three years. 

Stability could be improved. 

Radware is a very scalable product. 

I haven't needed to contact technical support on my most recent project because I have a multiple-user configuration guide for the command line, the GUI base, and for any issues. The guides are very helpful. 

The initial setup and configuration process is very quick and easy. If we have a pre-configured setup file, then we can configure Radware within 5 to 10 minutes.

Radware is a very budget-friendly device. It is not too expensive.

This is a good product and we're generally satisfied with its features and capabilities. I rate the solution nine out of 10.