Citrix Opens Up NetScaler SDX Platform to Bring App Intelligence to SDN

Broad Ecosystem of Cloud Networking Partners Will Be Able to Run Their Services Directly on NetScaler SDX platform

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citrix today announced the strategy for the next generation of NetScaler SDX, the company’s consolidated service delivery networking platform, for software defined networks (SDN). The groundbreaking NetScaler® SDX platform was introduced last year to let customers run up to 40 independent NetScaler application delivery controller instances on a single multi-tenant SDX hardware appliance with full isolation and independence. With today’s announcement, Citrix is now opening up the NetScaler SDX platform to support network services from third-party vendors as well. For the first time ever, customers will be able to unify a wide range of best-in-class L4-7 network services in a seamless application control layer to drive app intelligence into existing transport networks and emerging SDN technologies. With this next generation NetScaler SDX platform, customers will also be able to apply app-driven policies across the entire network, while consolidating the delivery and automating the deployment of network services.

“NetScaler and NetScaler SDX are critical components of our network. The ability to use the NetScaler platform to continue to consolidate additional services and drive further application intelligence across the whole network will make it more flexible, elastic and cost effective.”

Citrix is once again moving the future of network computing forward by unlocking the existing power of NetScaler SDX to enable an emerging architecture that supports the industry move toward SDN, which brings direct software programmability to networks worldwide. Unlike closed, proprietary systems that compromise functional depth for functional breadth by adding piecemeal extensions to an existing product, Citrix and its partners are working to ensure the next generation SDX platform offers a choice in best-in-class network services. The industry leaders in security, trusted enterprise mobility and application visibility have joined Citrix to ensure that applications, desktops and content can be simply and safely delivered to any device with rock solid performance, security and availability. Extensive partner support proves the value of this addition to the industry, with the following partners who are extending their market leading network and security services to the next generation NetScaler SDX platform: Aruba Networks, BlueCat Networks, CSE Secure Systems, RSA-The Security Division of EMC, Splunk, Trend Micro, Venafi and Websense. Citrix Branch Repeater, Citrix ShareFile StorageZones and Citrix CloudGateway will also be supported on the next-generation platform. Additionally, today Citrix and Palo Alto Networks announced a multi-phase technology relationship aligning our respective products and technologies to best support emerging data center network architectures. Together with these partners, Citrix will deliver app awareness to the cloud network.

By unifying these advanced networking services, NetScaler SDX can make the entire network app-aware. The broader networking industry has embarked on a new paradigm with SDN to decouple control and design flexibility into the core network. SDNs promise to make the network itself programmable, thus making today’s largely static networks more agile and scalable. However, current SDN technologies focus almost exclusively at L2-3 layers, are not app-aware, and thus miss the opportunity to truly deliver on the promise of SDN. To make the whole network more dynamic and flexible, the unified application control layer of the next generation NetScaler SDX platform can be used to drive app intelligence into the programming of emerging SDN infrastructure.

Capabilities

Key capabilities of the next generation NetScaler SDX platform include:

• App-driven control over the whole network by creating a unified application control layer composed of best-in-class L4-L7 network services, and using the control layer to make in-place L2-3 infrastructure and emerging SDN controllers more app-aware. Turnkey AppTemplates for popular applications are provided with integrated L4-7 policies to ease configuration while also embedding application intelligence into all layers of the network.
• Prescriptive, automated deployment of network service by using an app-centric approach for defining networking policy and topology and automating network configuration. AppFormations simplify initial deployment by programmatically pre-packaging the network services necessary to support common use cases, and the topology between for common use cases.
• Consolidated delivery and orchestration of best-in-class network services onto an open, programmable platform that is integrated with leading cloud orchestration platforms. AppFabric provides a common underlying multi-tenant framework for best-in-class third party services to seamlessly and securely plug into the platform.

Pricing and Availability

Citrix NetScaler SDX, MPX and VPX are all currently available for purchase. Documentation on existing integration between NetScaler and Citrix key alliance partners is available at www.citrix.com/ready. Pricing and availability of the new next generation NetScaler SDX platform will be announced at a future date.

Citrix Ready

To help customers accelerate deployment of Citrix cloud networking solutions, Citrix is announcing new Citrix Ready validations. Citrix Ready “NetScaler Verified” indicates a tested and validated integration with NetScaler. Citrix Ready “NetScaler SDX Verified” will indicate full vetting of the solution on the next generation SDX platform. Both these new Citrix Ready categories explicitly indicate compatibility with the NetScaler platform and minimize risk for our joint customers when deploying partner solutions with our networking platform.

Supporting Quotes

Jonathan Townsend, Director of Information Security, Mustang Engineering

“NetScaler and NetScaler SDX are critical components of our network. The ability to use the NetScaler platform to continue to consolidate additional services and drive further application intelligence across the whole network will make it more flexible, elastic and cost effective.”

Rohit Mehra, Director, Enterprise Communication Infrastructure, IDC

“A full-fledged enterprise cloud infrastructure is only as good as the underlying network. The transition of enterprise IT to the cloud-era has put the network on center stage, driving a new paradigm of software-defined networking to bring in programmability and flexibility. The new network must be prescriptive and app-driven, with built-in automation imparting true application intelligence and control to L2-3 infrastructures via SDN architectures. Network services and applications should be dynamically provisioned, freeing admins from complex, error-prone, per application provisioning of individual network services and functions.”

Sunil Potti, VP and GM, NetScaler Product Group

“The dynamic nature of cloud services requires a new level of flexibility, scalability and programmability that goes beyond the capabilities of today’s datacenter networks. Software defined networking has potential to deliver this, but if an SDN is not app-aware, it cannot deliver on its promise. The next generation NetScaler SDX platform provides the application intelligence necessary to make emerging SDN deployments truly app-driven.”

Supporting Partner Quotes

Krishna Prabhakar, Vice President of Network Services, Aruba Networks

“Aruba ClearPass and Citrix NetScaler SDX integration provides an extensible, virtualized platform that enables true multi-tenancy and load balancing while enhancing security for users coming into the network. We are pleased to be part of this announcement. Aruba and Citrix customers will greatly benefit with a more scalable and secure integrated solution.”

Brad Micklea, Vice President of Product Management, BlueCat Networks

“We’re excited that BlueCat Networks’ fully orchestrated DNS, DHCP and IP Address Management solutions are now available on the new Citrix NetScaler SDX platform. With the rise of cloud, networking teams have to manage an ever-growing number of IP addresses, users and devices. Together, BlueCat Networks and Citrix empower customers to manage and control ‘everything IP’ from a single pane of glass.”

Itaru Nishimura, President and CEO, CSE Secure Systems, a subsidiary of CSE Co., Ltd

“We are very excited to partner with Citrix to deliver innovative technologies for the cloud era. Integrating SECUREMATRIX with Citrix NetScaler SDX substantially enhances the security of the cloud applications delivered through the platform and seamlessly fits within the new cloud networking topology. The joint solution protects portals, applications and networks with the strong two-factor, token less One-Time Password (OTP) authentication against breaches and a broad range of threats, and has been tested for end-to-end integration with Citrix Receiver, Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop.”

Sam Curry, CTO of Identity and Data Protection, RSA

“The industry is rapidly crossing over into new and more powerful cloud-based applications. These applications enable the mobile workstyles of their users while being delivered over infrastructure that is moving towards further consolidation while still needing to be high performance and scalable. We see security as an enabler rather than as a road block to these exciting new innovations. These next-generation applications require a new, smarter approach to security, tying-in dynamic risk-based monitoring and threat intelligence while also enabling a simple, unfettered mobile user experience. Interoperability between RSA Adaptive Authentication and the next-generation Citrix NetScaler SDX will help customers deliver a solution that is both more secure and convenient for their end users.”

William B. Gaylord, SVP, Business and Corporate Development, Splunk

“Citrix NetScaler SDX is enabling a new type of agility and consolidation for network administrators. The unique profile in which these best-of-breed technologies are delivered on NetScaler SDX enables Splunk users to monitor and analyze performance, service-impacting incidents and application availability across their infrastructures like never before.”

Steve Quane, Chief Product Officer, Trend Micro

“Trend Micro InterScan Web Security and NetScaler SDX integration provides a consolidated platform for multi-tenant and elastic network and security services to increase security yet reduce cost. We are pleased to be part of this announcement and joint development effort, enabling IT to continue its transition from a cost center to business service provider - with the efficiency, reliability and affordability of cloud computing.”

Paul Turner, VP Product and Strategy, Venafi, Inc.

“Today, nearly every IT system and enterprise application has been encryption enabled. While this delivers greater security than ever before, the complexity of utilizing thousands of keys and certificates creates significant increase in security and operational risk, and causes degradation in network performance. With Venafi's turn-key integration with Citrix NetScaler SDX, our customers ensure that their encryption systems provide the security with best-of-breed, enterprise-wide key and certificate management that reduces risk and administrative workload while significantly improving system and application performance.”

John McCormack, President, Websense

“The innovative Citrix NetScaler SDX platform is ideal to unify best-in-class network services. We are thrilled to be working with Citrix to integrate our renowned data loss prevention technology. Together, Citrix and Websense enable organizations to secure their critical information from loss and theft, while consolidating infrastructure and providing greater deployment agility.”

Related Links

• Additional Oct. 3 News announcement: Citrix and Palo Alto Networks Team to Securely Deliver Applications over Next-Generation Networks
• Expert Blog: Flying in AppFormation: Next-gen NetScaler SDX by Morgan Gerhart, Director, Products, Cloud Networking Group
• Expert Blog: In the Beginning, there was APP by Abhishek Chauhan, CTO, Cloud Networking Group

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About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) transforms how businesses and IT work and people collaborate in the cloud era. With market-leading cloud, collaboration, networking and virtualization technologies, Citrix powers mobile workstyles and cloud services, making complex enterprise IT simpler and more accessible for 260,000 organizations. Citrix products touch 75 percent of Internet users each day and it partners with more than 10,000 companies in 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2011 was $2.21 billion. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

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