NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NEAL WEINBERG ON PRODUCT REVIEWS 11/18/04 Today's focus: Netscaler
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Netscaler 9950 Secure Application Switch * Links related to Product Reviews * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88335 _______________________________________________________________ DOWNLOAD INDUSTRY WHITE PAPERS NOW NW Fusion's White Paper Library is your source for the latest industry white papers. Recent additions to the library include white papers on WLAN Security; IT Documentation; protecting the internal network from worms, Trojan horses, and other malware threats; measuring employee productivity and more. Click here to download: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88314 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Netscaler By Neal Weinberg If you're interested in optimizing your Web site, don't overlook the Netscaler 9950 Secure Application Switch. This product has its roots in the traditional load balancer camp, but it has been optimized with a variety of very interesting features like surge protection that gear it more toward extreme traffic situations. Netscaler claimes rates as high as 5 million requests per second on the high-end offering we tested Installation of the Netscaler unit is fairly easy. Administration of the device is performed via a Web browser, which accesses a Java applet-based system. The Netscaler box also supports a command line interface. The Netscaler offering also handles TCP connection management and buffering. While the load balancing policies seem more inline with traditional load balancers encompassing metrics such as least connections, least traffic and least bandwidth, since the device is geared towards application delivery it can also do basic content switching. For example, you can balance URL requests for images to a particular server, SSL requests to a certain server, or even balance by protocol. Netscaler also provides the ability to filter requests based upon certain signatures in the headers, request, or content. By default the device contained some basic filters for common worm signatures, but like the other devices tested, it is really up to the administrator to determine what should be filtered and what should be allowed. One of the unique features Netscaler provides is the ability to prioritize requests so that you might service high priority requests and deny or redirect suspicious traffic. This priority queuing feature also acts as HTTP distributed denial-of-service protection by using JavaScript, redirects and cookies to help sniff out faked HTTP GET requests coming from clients that will never respond. Another interesting surge handling features is the ability to build an effective "please stand-by" page back to end users and later retry when dealing with extreme servers or overloaded back ends. This particular type of feature might be quite useful to e-commerce sites facing extreme load for a short period of time. If you are looking for strong load balancing and good traffic management particular for burst situations Netscaler should be on your short list. For the full report, go to: <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/1025rev.html> RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Web front ends shoot for speed, security Network World, 10/25/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/1025rev.html Web acceleration options on the cheap Network World, 10/25/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/1025revside.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Neal Weinberg Neal Weinberg is features editor at Network World, in charge of product reviews, Buyer's Guides, technology primers, how-tos, issue-oriented feature stories and the Technology Insider series. You can reach him at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88334 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Reviews archive: http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION PARTNERS' SITES NOW AVAILABLE Network World Fusion Partners is a collaborative effort between Network World and sponsoring Partner companies. Each microsite contains best-of-breed information as well as custom content not found anywhere else, including a custom email newsletter and special offers. It is current, top-of-mind information that is readily accessible and bundled into one comprehensive package. 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