Full application visibility and easy-to-deploy policy management

With pre-configured templates for popular enterprise applications, built-in configuration wizards, easily accessed application visibility, and absolutely no programming required, NetScaler is simple to deploy and easy to manage.

Simple policy management with NetScaler AppExpert

All NetScaler solutions include Citrix’s intuitive AppExpert policy manager for easy definition and management of the full spectrum of application delivery capabilities. Policies are defined using simple drop-down dialog boxes and custom expression statements, obviating the need for custom programming and debugging.  AppExpert also includes the AppVisualizer that provides a graphical display of the end-to-end ADC and load balancing policy so that NetScaler administrators can get a simple at-a-glance view of their full environment.

Integrated support for popular enterprise applications

NetScaler provides pre-defined AppExpert templates for common enterprise applications, relieving the datacenter manager from having to gain application expertise just to optimize the delivery of common enterprise apps. In addition, NetScaler administrators benefit from the availability of multiple step-by-step technical deployment guides that provide detailed configuration and deployment guidelines for the most popular business applications, including:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and NetScaler: Deployment Guide
• Microsoft SharePoint and NetScaler: Deployment Guide
• Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 with NetScaler: Deployment Guide
• Citrix XenApp and NetScaler: Implementation Guide
• Oracle E-Business Suite and NetScaler: Deployment Guide

Application visibility and business intelligence with Citrix AppFlow

Citrix AppFlow is an innovative open standards technology that transforms the data collected by existing networking devices into powerful operational and business intelligence. AppFlow is an extension to IPFIX, a widely used flow monitoring standard supported by a large ecosystem of vendor tools. Networking products using AppFlow generate and export detailed application flow records. This AppFlow information is then collected, correlated and analyzed by popular performance monitoring and business intelligence tools for rich reporting and analysis.

AppFlow technology enables IT organizations to monitor and improve application performance and availability SLAs. All Citrix NetScaler appliances and editions include integrated support for AppFlow technology.

AppFlow Features:

• Non-intrusive data collection:  Detailed records are produced by existing NetFlow-based elements to leverage in-place networking real estate, eliminating the need to deploy intrusive network taps or install software agents on each application server in the environment.
• Robust intelligence gathering:  AppFlow records provide basic TCP information on network level traffic (source and destination addresses, total packet counts, timing information, latency and transaction and connection IDs pertinent) as well as transactional information for each application (per-request URLs, user agent and server response times).  This data is tightly coupled with the network data, correlated with per user session and connection, then exported to an AppFlow solution.
• Open Technology:  Open, innovative technology supported by the AppFlow community with active participation from customers, vendors and industry experts.
• Support by leading operational and business intelligence vendors: 
• SolarWinds Real-Time AppFlow Analyzer solution brief
• Splunk operational intelligence software solution brief

NetScaler Action Analytics

NetScaler provides integrated, real-time monitoring of application and client traffic, along with the capability to feed back critical application delivery information to automatically optimize ADC and load balancing policies.

NetScaler Action Analytics collects detailed information on administrator-selected application traffic flows and generates multi-dimensional views of what is happening in real-time. Graphical and tabular displays enable you to instantly view critical app delivery parameters, such as top URLs being accessed, or top clients consuming application resources, and then easily drill down for more detailed statistics including number of overall requests, total bandwidth being consumed, and the response times of the back-end infrastructure delivering the application content.

Top URLs	Top applications	Top clients
Top URLs	Top applications	Top clients

These detailed, real-time statistics can also be fed back into the NetScaler AppExpert Policy Engine to automatically optimize the NetScaler load balancing and app delivery policy for the current environment. For example, after identifying top consuming application users, NetScaler Action Analytics can redirect these users to a more powerful server to ensure that SLAs are maintained for all application clients. It can also be used to adaptively moderate individual bandwidth consumption when the application environment is under unusually heavy load, or automatically cache application content that is in greatest demand at any point in time. This ability to dynamically change policy in real-time to deliver the highest optimization for your exact requirements is what sets the new NetScaler Action Analytics apart.