Citrix NetScaler

Citrix® NetScaler® web application delivery solutions are purpose built appliances that accelerate application performance up to five times, while simultaneously reducing datacenter costs. They provide visibility into the end-user application experience and comprehensive web application security in concert with advanced traffic management. Citrix NetScaler is an ideal solution for any enterprise seeking accelerated Web application performance, improved web application security and increased application availability.

Citrix NetScaler cuts application delivery costs by reducing the number of required servers and by optimizing usage of available network bandwidth. The intuitive AppExpert Visual Policy Builder enables application delivery policies to be created without the need for coding complex programs or scripts. In addition, NetScaler reduces ongoing operational expenses by consolidating multiple capabilities in a single solution managed with either a Web-based graphical user interface (GUI) or a powerful command-line interface (CLI). Enterprise applications such as ERP, CRM, HRM and data warehousing solutions, as well as internal and public-facing Web-based applications can quickly and easily be deployed. For managing multiple NetScaler appliances, the separately available NetScaler Command Center provides centralized administration of system configuration, event management, performance management and SSL certificate administration.

Citrix NetScaler delivers multiple TCP optimizations to improve the performance of the network and server infrastructure. For example, TCP connection multiplexing reduces thousands of short-lived client connections into a much smaller number of long-lived, persistent server connections. This and other TCP optimizations reduce server load, improving server performance and accelerating application response. NetScaler TCP optimizations are transparent to clients and servers, accelerating the delivery of any enterprise or Web-based application while requiring little or no configuration.

The Citrix® AppCompress™ and Citrix® AppCache® options deliver highly efficient data compression and caching of static and dynamic content to speed application responses. The Citrix AppCompress option improves end-user performance and reduces bandwidth consumption by compressing Web application data, regardless of whether it is encrypted or unencrypted, before it is sent to the client. The optional Citrix AppCache speeds content delivery to users by providing fast, in-memory caching of both static and dynamically generated HTTP application content.

In addition to traditional networking metrics such as system throughput and TCP connection counts, NetScaler appliance platforms are designed to deliver performance metrics that are most relevant to transactional web application traffic. For example, high-end NetScaler systems can offer up to 550,000 network-layer (TCP) transactions per second, over 275,000 Web (HTTP) requests per second and 28,000 encrypted (SSL-based) transactions per second.

Real-time and historical page-level monitoring of end-user performance experience is provided by Citrix EdgeSight® for NetScaler. EdgeSight for NetScaler transparently instruments client HTML pages, proactively monitoring Web page response time from the end-user perspective. Response time measurements are combined with detailed statistics on the trip durations of requests and responses across the Web site infrastructure, providing granular visibility into how Web applications are behaving from the end user’s perspective. Real-time and Historical Reporting is available using the EdgeSight for NetScaler management console providing both real-time and historical views to Web application performance via an intuitive interface. IT administrators are able to monitor the minimum, average and maximum response time for multiple web applications in a real-time fashion to proactively identify potential problems before users are affected. By intelligently aggregating and presenting this data on a historical basis, application managers can also better understand how the performance of individual web pages has changed over time. These tightly integrated real-time monitoring and historical reporting capabilities available in NetScaler make it easy for IT administrators to better ensure Web application availability and continue to improve service levels.

NetScaler protects web applications from application-layer attacks, helping to prevent the theft and leakage of valuable corporate and customer data. Patented Citrix® Request Switching® technology enables NetScaler to proxy legitimate client requests and block illegitimate requests. NetScaler includes always-active, high-performance, built-in defenses against damaging denial of service (DoS) attacks without performance penalties. The network can be further secured via L3-4 access control lists.. Legitimate surges in application traffic that would otherwise overwhelm application servers are automatically handled with configurable Surge Protection and Priority Queuing features. NetScaler Application Firewall technology proactively protects Web application from application-layer attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, forceful browsing and cookie poisoning, and helps prevent theft and leakage of valuable corporate and customer data using a positive security model. NetScaler Application Firewall protects Web applications from the growing number of application-layer attacks, including buffer overflow exploits, SQL injection attempts, cross-site scripting attacks and more. In addition to proven attack defenses, Citrix Application Firewall provides identity theft protection by securing confidential corporate information and sensitive customer data. NetScaler Application Firewall delivers the industry’s highest performing Web application security solution, capable of protecting Web servers without degrading throughput or application response times. Using a Positive Security Model, NetScaler Application Firewall security technology implements a positive security model based on HTTP industry standards and best coding practices for HTML. Web Application behavior deviating from the positive security model is treated as potentially malicious and blocked. By understanding good application behavior, the positive security model does not require attack signatures or pattern matching techniques to detect and block attacks. It is the only proven approach delivering zero day protection against unpublished exploits. The Adaptive Learning Engine of the NetScaler Application Firewall provides the ability to tailor security policies for any application, including those using client-side javascript. Citrix’s third generation Adaptive Learning Engine can automatically learn the behavior of an application and generate human-readable policy recommendations. The security manager can then selectively apply recommendations to strengthen a security policy and to enable permissible application behavior.

To help ensure application availability, NetScaler delivers fine-grained direction of client requests to ensure optimal distribution of traffic. In addition to Layer 4 information (protocol and port number), traffic management policies for TCP applications can be based upon any application-layer content. Administrators can granularly segment application traffic based upon information contained within an HTTP request body or TCP payload, as well as L4-7 header information such as URL, application data type or cookie. Numerous load-balancing algorithms and extensive server health checks provide greater application availability by ensuring client requests are directed only to correctly behaving servers.

Deployed in front of application servers, NetScaler delivers fine-grained direction of client requests to ensure optimal distribution of traffic. In addition to Layer 4 information (protocol and port number), traffic management policies for TCP applications canbe based upon any application-layer content. Adiminstrators can granularly segment application traffic based upon information contained within an HTTP request body or TCP payload, as well as L4-7 header information such as URL, application data type or cookie. Numerous load-balancing algorithms and extensive server health chcks provide greater application availability by ensuring client requests are directed only to correctly behaving servers.

NetScaler integrates hardware-based SSL acceleration to offload the compute-intensive processes of SSL connection setup and bulk encryption from Web servers. SSL acceleration reduces CPU utilization of servers, freeing server resources for other tasks. SSL acceleration is automatically enhanced by TCP optimizations and is fully integrated with the AppCompress and AppCache options. NetScaler is also available in a FIPS-compliant model that provides secure key generation and storage.

The Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) feature option for the Citrix NetScaler line of application delivery products delivers global traffic management capabilities, which increase application performance, and maintains availability in the event of a data center outage. Citrix NetScaler systems offer both geographic and network proximity GSLB for multi-site application environments to maintain constant application availability. User traffic can be distributed to the geographically closest data center that is available. Similarly, traffic can be distributed to the data center with the least latency.

Disasters happen no matter how we try to prevent and plan for them. Citrix NetScaler GSLB allows your network and system administrators to sleep at night by transparently redirecting traffic to alternate data centers. Properly constructed enterprise applications can allow a seamless transition of traffic based on either network or geographic proximity.

NetScaler Enterprise and Platinum Editions optionally integrates the complete SSL VPN functionality of Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition, including Citrix SmartAccess™. Citrix Access Gateway is the only SSL VPN to securely deliver any application with policy-based SmartAccess control. Users will have easy-to-use secure access to all of the enterprise applications and data they need to be productive and IT can cost effectively extend access to applications while maintaining security through SmartAccess application-level policies.

With Access Gateway organizations are empowered to cost effectively meet the anywhere access demands of all workers – enabling flexible work options, easier outsourcing and non-employee access, and business continuity readiness – while ensuring the highest-level of information security. The SSL VPN licensed software requires no additional client or server software, allowing up to 10,000 concurrent users to connect to a data center from any browser at any time.

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