* Citrix releases NetScaler application acceleration product for SMBs
Citrix this week is set to introduce a scaled down version its NetScaler application delivery product that is targeted at small and midsize businesses.
The first application networking product released since Citrix acquired NetScaler in August, the Citrix NetScaler Application Switch Standard Edition (SE) will offer SMBs high-speed load balancing and application acceleration, the company says. NetScaler makes application appliances that offer load balancing, content caching and remote-access capabilities. The company recently upgraded its traffic acceleration device to further speed application response times and reduce WAN bandwidth.
The Application Switch SE sits in front of application servers to provide Layer 4-7 traffic management and application acceleration, the company says. It offloads compute-intensive processes, such as SSL security and HTTP data compression, from application servers enabling existing resources to support more applications and more users. It also can monitor the health of application resources and direct traffic to available servers to improve business continuity. Customers have the choice to manage the technology via a Web-based GUI or a command-line interface.
Citrix explains that NetScaler devices also take advantage of the company’s AppCompress technology, which NetScaler says users can make some applications run 44 times faster over a WAN connection. This is done through a mix of HTTP compression, caching, server load balancing and terminating TCP/IP connections on the NetScaler box instead of servers, the company says.
The Application Switch SE can also be deployed between a Citrix Presentation Server farm and back-end application servers to increase server capacity and efficiency. Citrix is providing a “best practices” reference architecture guide to customers and the company’s channel partners.
Citrix NetScaler competes with similar products from Redline Networks and Silver Peak Systems.
The new product will be sold through Citrix channel partners and pricing begins around $17,500 for a single unit and $30,000 for a high-availability pair. AppCompress is a separately licensed feature for the Application Switch Standard Edition providing high-performance HTTP data compression.
