Citrix® NetScaler® is an all-in-one Web app delivery solution that makes applications 5X better by accelerating performance, ensuring application availability through advanced L4-7 traffic management, increasing security with an integrated application firewall and substantially lowering costs by offloading servers. It reduces TCO, optimizes the user experience and makes sure that applications are always available.

Advanced Server Offload
Deliver more apps to more users with dramatic reduction in servers and network devices. Reduce server costs by up to 80% and deploy new Web 2.0 Apps without massive infrastructure changes.

• Fast TCP connection proxy for three-way handshakes
• Efficient TCP multiplexing engine to offload repetitive network processing from servers
• Advanced SSL acceleration and management with fast co-processing capabilities
• Dynamic in-memory content caching of both static and dynamic content, freeing servers from repeatedly generating the same content
• AppExpert Rate Controls and Surge Protection to shield servers from unwanted traffic

All-in-One Solution
Deploy one solution instead of many point products. Tight integration between all core features enables easier deployment and a dramatic savings in training, power, space and overall costs.
 

• Tightly integrated system without any reliance on custom hardware
• Unified policy engine underlying all functions
• Policy-driven execution of selected functions for targeted deployments
• Single management pane for simple administration
• Parallel operation of all critical functions to run all features concurrently with great performance
• Available as an integrated hardware appliance or new software-based NetScaler VPX virtual appliance

Application Acceleration
Increase end-user performance by 5X or more, while saving on network bandwidth and making audio and video traffic usable over poor networks.
 

• Advanced multi-level compression for 5X faster delivery of Web content
• Dynamic content caching to instantly deliver frequently requested content directly
• End-user experience monitor providing true, transparent, non-synthetic monitoring of application user performance
• Automated TCP optimizations that improve performance of all TCP-based applications

Open Scalable Appliance
Designed on an open platform, NetScaler enables faster feature rollout and provides flexibility in adding new applications and new features.

• Single software architecture designed for x86 standard hardware and providing a single pass, no copy stack
• Multi-core, multi-processor design with a modular message passing architecture
• Intel open architecture for fast feature rollout and no reliance upon ASIC respins
• NetScaler VPX virtual appliance allows tighter integration with applications for optimizing app delivery
• Pay-as-You-Grow simple, on-demand licensing upgrades to scale NetScaler performance

End-to-End Web Security
Prevents the loss of valuable corporate and customer data and aids in compliance with regulations such as PCI-DSS. NetScaler security also allows remote access and reduces the number of point products deployed.
 

• Day zero attack prevention to block all app attacks without requiring signatures
• Integrated XML security to protect all Web 2.0 applications
• DoS Shield to protect against damaging L4 and L7 denial of service threats
• Authentication, Authorization and Audit providing granular, policy-based access control to applications and sensitive data

AppExpert Framework
Enables rollout of new applications without knowledge of app internals and no programming. Gets datacenters ready in 30 minutes for the most used apps.

• Easy application configuration that intelligently configures the network by understanding the application
• Visual policy builder offering a graphical, declarative environment for visually building Web app delivery policies without programming
• Pre-configured app templates providing one-step configuration for key applications
• Centralized policy management for worldwide visibility of application delivery infrastructures

Dynamic Workload Response
Enables up to 80% savings in power, cooling and space for the data center, while ensuring that SLA metrics are met for all classes of applications. Also allows change management of back-end application infrastructure without taking the application offline.

• Overload sense and alert providing real-time awareness of incoming load and infrastructure capacity
• Dynamic workload response with Citrix Workflow Studio and third-party orchestration software to spin up/spin down NetScaler VPX instances as business requirements dictate
• Activate capacity on-demand to add or subtract capacity without interrupting the application
• Full visibility of app networking metrics to ensure that SLA metrics are met for all classes of applications

Load Balancing
Drives 100% application uptime for all users. Makes sure each user is directed to the right application resource while avoiding single points of failure.
 

• L4 load balancing to maximize use of all servers
• Intelligent content switching to send the right traffic to the right server for best possible performance
• Global server load balancing (GSLB) for Web and client server apps that directs application users to the right site.
• High availability (HA) maintains availability with full redundancy of NetScaler deployments and ISP/Internet links

Compression and Caching
Speeds application performance by up to 5X and reduces bandwidth costs.

• Industry-standard browser compression delivering fast, efficient data compression that speeds application performance by up to 5X
• Static and dynamic content cache that delivers application content immediately–-without burdening servers

Web 2.0 Application Optimization
Web 2.0 Push capability reduces the cost of delivering Web 2.0 applications and improves application responsiveness.

• Offloads connection management from web servers to reduce resources required to deliver long-polling and streaming Web 2.0 applications by up to 90%
• Optimizes user experience by reducing latency of application data delivered to clients

Maximum Feature Concurrency
NetScaler appliances provide the power to run all these features and many others at the same time with no significant drop in performance. That’s important for enterprise operations of any size as such environments often need to combine traffic management with application security, secure SSL VPN sessions, caching, compression and more. Maximum concurrent use of NetScaler features is becoming critical for some users and that is where NetScaler shines. All NetScaler models including the new MPX models MPX 10500 and MPX 12500 are especially designed for such rigorous demands.