What is our primary use case?
My main use case for
Traefik Enterprise is as a reverse proxy, doing IP isolation. The main idea was that when clients make a request to an application, the servers cannot see the final client's application and vice versa.
I can go deeper into how I configured the isolation in Traefik Enterprise. Isolation is normally achieved by separating traffic through entry points, routers, middlewares, and namespaces. I did it in Kubernetes or sometimes in Docker. The advantages of the isolation were greater security, as one application cannot directly access another application's traffic, less impact from failures if an application has issues or there is a failover. It does round-robin directly so that it continues working on another server, there was better administration, and there was also better control compliance.
All of the documentation is available on the internet and it is very good.
What is most valuable?
I consider the best features that Traefik Enterprise offers to be the Dynamic Configuration. Traefik Enterprise automatically detects our services in
Docker or in other applications without needing to restart it. It has intelligent load balancing, so it distributes traffic between several instances of an application, doing round-robin. It is essentially a reverse proxy and routes the traffic. It has very good integration with Docker and with
Kubernetes and offers the security of TLS termination.
A function of Traefik Enterprise that pleasantly surprised me in my experience could be the integration with Kubernetes, which is probably the strongest integration because it automatically discovers new services, updates the route without restarting, integrates with Ingress and CRDs, it works very well in microservices environments, and also with Docker, it automatically detects new containers.
Traefik Enterprise has positively impacted my organization because it automates the integration of new services, especially the ones I already mentioned. It reduces manual configuration since it automatically detects services, centralizes routing, makes deployments easier without affecting users, and it has resulted in a lot of cost reduction because the licenses, for example, compared to other technologies such as F5 proxy, are more expensive.
What needs improvement?
Although the documentation of Traefik Enterprise is good, for advanced functions it can be complex for those who are starting. The learning curve is sometimes a bit difficult to understand how they are related. The graphical interface is also a little complicated at times, and some integration examples could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for approximately three and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I consider Traefik Enterprise to be stable in my experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I find the scalability of Traefik Enterprise to be highly effective. It can run in multiple instances, distributes traffic among several servers, integrates very well with other applications, and can handle dynamic changes.
How are customer service and support?
I have not used the customer support of Traefik Enterprise.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was not using any other solution before implementing Traefik Enterprise. It was directly Traefik.
How was the initial setup?
There was an issue to do the deployments with Docker, but everything worked correctly. After that, everything is automatic and it quickly recognizes the containers. This was not in my current organization but in a previous one, and in this one I do not use Traefik Enterprise.
What about the implementation team?
My advice to other professionals considering using Traefik Enterprise would be to start with a test environment before implementing Traefik Enterprise in production. It is important to understand concepts of routers, services, middlewares, endpoints, and load balancing. If you work with Kubernetes or Docker, it is worth learning how Traefik Enterprise integrates with these platforms since that is where it shows many of its advantages. I would also recommend reviewing the official documentation and performing tests to become familiar with the configuration and best practices before deploying it in an enterprise environment.
What was our ROI?
I can give you a specific example of how the cost reduction or automation was reflected in metrics or tangible results. It greatly reduced administration since there were no longer people who had to be routing services and discovering information all the time. There was better use of the infrastructure and deployments were faster, which had a huge impact on the collaborators and cost reduction.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Traefik Enterprise has positively impacted my organization because it automates the integration of new services. It reduces manual configuration since it automatically detects services, centralizes routing, and makes deployments easier without affecting users. It has resulted in a lot of cost reduction because the licenses, compared to other technologies such as F5 proxy, are more expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options before choosing Traefik Enterprise. I only chose Traefik.
What other advice do I have?
I have been using Traefik Enterprise for about a year, and I was using it for routing for some external applications. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Traefik Enterprise an eight.
The factors that influenced my decision to give it that rating of eight include that the learning curve and the initial complexity can be an obstacle for some teams, and in practice, it is sometimes a bit complex to understand in the documentation.
Everything works well with Traefik Enterprise.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises