Gartner recently released the 2015 Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers (WOC). In the report, Gartner says that Citrix has a good market vision, and has refreshed its hardware platforms, adding a large capacity of solid-state drive (SSD) memory and several new software features. Citrix supports a wide range of appliance form factors, and via TriScale, can cluster up to 32 appliances for very large data centers. Gartner recommends considering Citrix for data-center-to-data-center, branch-office-to-data center or cloud optimization, particularly when optimization of XenDesktop is important.
Gartner cautions that while Citrix supports video caching on all branch office platforms, video stream splitting is planned for late 2015, and requires hosting of third-party media servers. Although Citrix has a large number of channel partners, it has no carrier partners; however, Citrix has established partnerships with cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft (Windows Azure) and SoftLayer (an IBM company).
What do you think? Do you agree? Add your comments below and share your opinions with the community.
Cisco is a traditional networking play and has successfully transformed from pure hardware to now software defined products.
Many network engineers already use the product and makes a lot of sense for a company with Cisco history to go towards Cisco just like a company which uses citrix desktops will go for the Citrix ADC.
Therefore, configuration of Cisco, while not being difficult, is mo...
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
May 8, 2020
Cisco is a traditional networking play and has successfully transformed from pure hardware to now software defined products.
Many network engineers already use the product and makes a lot of sense for a company with Cisco history to go towards Cisco just like a company which uses citrix desktops will go for the Citrix ADC.
Therefore, configuration of Cisco, while not being difficult, is more "formatted" for Engineers who have used the solution and already have deep understanding of the protocols
As a relatively new comer, Citrix seems to have put more effort to make the implementation process easier in terms of GUI
Now, citrix has one fourth the market share of cisco and this is crucial in terms of competency - as it is 4 times easier to get Cisco competency
However, in terms of costs, I like Citrix Netscaler pooled licensing arrangement,
It is a flexible licensing framework whereby there is a common pool of license regardless whether the customer performs the deployment as a physical hardware, virtual device or even a containerized solution already use the product.
Therefore, Cisco has higher costs
As for used cases, I have seen NetScalers used for Load Balancing, for external users to internal services and resources like XenDesktop and XenApp
Finally, both Cisco and Citrix have resilient solutions and provide good support - also some dependency where you are located.
As for recommendation, it depends on your specific scenario in light of above points.
In managing a retail network with over a hundred branches, we moved from MPLS to Citrix SD-WAN for cost savings and flexibility. Citrix seamlessly combines Internet and MPLS, enabling us to eliminate MPLS. This shift lets us use different Internet providers at each branch while maintaining performance. The centralized monitoring and easy deployment make our network operations more efficient.