BROCADE LOAD BALANCER ALTERNATIVE

What is Brocade Load Balancer

The Brocade Load Balancer, part of Brocade’s Application Delivery Controller (ADC) portfolio, was designed to optimize the delivery and performance of applications across enterprise networks. It provided robust Layer 4 to Layer 7 load balancing, enabling efficient distribution of traffic to ensure application reliability and scalability. The Brocade Load Balancer supported features like SSL offloading, content switching, and health monitoring, which helped reduce server workloads while maintaining consistent application availability. Its ability to seamlessly integrate with existing network infrastructures made it a trusted solution for enterprises looking to improve their application delivery capabilities.

One of the defining features of the Brocade Load Balancer was its focus on high performance and enterprise-grade scalability. It supported advanced traffic management capabilities, including persistence, caching, and compression, to enhance application response times and user experiences. Additionally, the Brocade Load Balancer provided integrated security features such as application-layer firewalls and intrusion prevention, ensuring that applications remained protected from external threats. Although Brocade’s ADC line was eventually phased out after the company’s acquisition, the legacy of the Brocade Load Balancer continues to influence modern load balancing technologies, especially in delivering high-performance and secure application delivery solutions.

What is RELIANOID Load Balancer

RELIANOID Load Balancer is a modern, open-source Application Delivery Controller (ADC) that offers advanced features and flexibility, making it a strong alternative to legacy solutions like the Brocade Load Balancer. While the Brocade Load Balancer was known for its robust Layer 4 to Layer 7 load balancing and features like SSL offloading and content switching, its discontinuation left a gap for organizations needing a reliable replacement. RELIANOID not only fills this gap but surpasses it by providing a highly adaptable, cost-effective solution that can be deployed on commodity hardware, virtualized environments, or in the cloud. This flexibility eliminates the reliance on proprietary hardware and licensing fees associated with Brocade’s legacy offerings.

One significant advantage of RELIANOID Load Balancer over the Brocade Load Balancer is its active development and alignment with modern application delivery needs. RELIANOID supports advanced features such as integration with containerized environments, modern health-check mechanisms, and traffic management tailored for hybrid and cloud-native architectures. Unlike the static and hardware-dependent approach of Brocade, RELIANOID provides users with customization options, enabling them to tailor their load balancing configurations to specific requirements. Additionally, RELIANOID offers an intuitive user interface and streamlined management, making it accessible for teams with varying levels of expertise. For organizations looking to replace legacy solutions like Brocade while gaining the benefits of a scalable, open-source platform, RELIANOID is an ideal choice.

Brocade’s Strengths

Brocade’s attributes, licensing alternatives, and strategic plans are in perfect harmony with enterprises seeking to implement ADC in their virtual or cloud projects.

They provide a complimentary developer edition with no licensing fees, offering a comprehensive feature set that can be easily obtained with a single click.

Their pricing model is transparent and follows a consumption-based billing approach.

RELIANOID’s Strengths

Expert and skilled R&D professionals accomplished in Zevenet and Zen Load Balancer, departing from an Open Source technology with no vendor lock-in and broad platforms integration (hardware, virtual, bare metal and cloud), bringing security, performance and readiness.

Cost-effective solutions with no constraints on products and services, tailored to the needs of midsize companies as well as large enterprises.

Protocol Versatility adapting and managing diverse network environments and protocols (UDP, TCP, HTTP/S, HTTP/2 SCTP, SIP, T/FTP).

High Performance Reverse Proxy managing over 140K concurrent users at Layer 7, while at Layer 4, it efficiently handles more than 10 million concurrent users, all with just 2 dedicated cores.

High Availability witha automatic real time stateful cluster replication.

Security and WAF improved as it incorporates an Intrusion Prevention and Detection System (IPDS) and also an integrated Web Application Firewall (WAF). It actively safeguards web applications against specific threats while providing real-time IP blacklisting, Denial of Service (DoS) protection, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and support for black and whitelisting.

User-friendly interface designed for both DevOps and SRE professionals, ensuring ease of use in managing and configuring systems.

Automation thanks to its fully programmable and robust REST+JSON API.

Brocade’s Weaknesses

Does not offer a turnkey hardware appliance, in which hardware/software support is sourced.

Customers have raised concerns over the discontinuation of Brocade´s legacy ADC product line, the ADX.

RELIANOID’s Weaknesses

Emerging brand, challenging the ADC and Load Balancing market, operating as an open-source company.

Still in the process of building a significant presence. It must expand its partnership network more extensively.