Re: Layer4 and Layer7 TPS

Ravi,

 

I know we've had this discussion in the past too (maybe not you and I, but
on the list).  I certainly see the value in what you propose, but one of the
issues I see is that there are so many certifications that the products
already have to go through that adding yet one more "stamp" to the process
may be detrimental to the customer in the long run.

 

As we've talked about, there is impact to performance both from a software
and hardware standpoint.  That means that in order to really have
apples-to-apples comparison with a standard certification, you'd have to
certify each software/hardware tuple; each new software or hardware release
would necessitate re-certification.  That would add significant costs and
delays to getting new product to the market, especially on top of all the
other certifications that the devices have to go through.

 

In your blog post, you seemed to focus on the security stuff and how most of
them have certification.  Do those certification provide performance
guarantees?  I don't think so-they simply state that the device satisfies a
specific checklist of security items.  To be fair, when we add functionality
like the web application firewall, most vendors do attempt to follow this
practice as well.  For example, our WAF is ISCA certified.

 

Of course-this becomes exacerbated as more and more functionality becomes
part of the standard ADC.

 

I guess, to cut to the chase, I see the value in what you're proposing but
I'm not sure how tenable the existing certification system is, let alone
trying to add another one for performance.

 

Anyone else have some thoughts?

 


KJ (Ken) Salchow, Jr. | Manager, Technical Marketing


D 651.423.1133

M 612.868.1258

P 206.272.5555

F 206.272.5555

 <http://www.f5.com/> www.f5.com

 

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Ravi Kumar
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:22 PM
To: Load Balancing Mailing List
Subject: Re: [load balancing] Layer4 and Layer7 TPS

 

ADCxprt looks to be confused seeing different results posted by vendors. As
some one pointed out, the third party results also shows up great value for
the vendor who asks for report. That is the reason I was pushing for common
platform for performance and various other tests. Need a third party
certification like NSS for IPS/IDS devices.

http://netlb.blogspot.com/2009/03/need-for-third-party-certification.html

Thanks,
-Ravi.

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:40 AM, LeMay, John <[email protected]> wrote:

As others have pointed out, tests like these are always biased. Even when a
third party company does the testing and writes the report, if one of the
vendors whose products are being tested paid for the test and report, you
can be sure that vendor's product will come out on top. This is after all
marketing material and is designed to highlight the areas where a specific
product outperforms the competition. There may be other products from the
same or different vendors that may have performed better. There are also
almost certainly tests where the devices compare less favorably or even
outperform the main vendor, but those results would be left out of the
report for obvious reasons. Device configuration comes into question since
you have to question the expertise of the testing engineer across all of
these platforms.

 

That being said, reports like this when performed by a reputable company are
certainly a good starting point. They give a good idea of who a vendor sees
as their main competition (usually) and of where the vendor believes their
product excels. I never dismiss these tests completely, but I do realize
there is a lot more to the story that isn't being told.

 

 

    


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