Best of TechEd 2013 Finalist: A10 Thunder Reduces Cost and Complexity of Application Networking

A10 Networks showed off its new A10 Thunder Series platforms at TechEd 2013 this week, and I had an opportunity to talk with Todd Harcourt (senior systems engineering manager), Paul Nicholson (director of product marketing), and Genard Garcia (technical marketing engineer) about this powerful and streamlined behemoth. A10 Thunder is a finalist for Best of TechEd.

By 2015, it is forecasted that 15 billion devices will be connected via the cloud, and the global cloud computing market will grow exponentially. To accommodate this growth, high-performance, multi-function solutions in compact hardware and virtual appliance form factors are required to reduce data center equipment sprawl, cost and complexity. A10 Thunder Series platforms deliver innovations in hardware and software to make cloud applications faster, more flexible, and more secure with intelligent services convergence.

The A10 Thunder appliances are exquisitely designed hardware and software Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) that provide Unified Application Service Gateway (UASG) functionality by consolidating premium solution modules for intelligent cloud services in the most efficient form factors. Built on A10's scalable and flexible Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS) architecture, the new Thunder Series models consolidate stand-alone solutions encompassing ADCs and Server Load Balancers; and features such as Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT), IPv6 Migration, DNS Application Firewall, Web Application Firewall (WAF), SSL Intercept, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, Application Access Management (AAM), and more.

This first A10 Thunder Series release includes three high-end UASG models, designed for the most demanding carrier, enterprise applications, high-density deployments, and multi-vendor datacenter consolidation. The new A10 Thunder Series models deliver performance, scalability, and advanced premium features that rival 7 rack unit (RU) chassis systems—in a 1 RU appliance—to deliver overall data center efficiency.

At TechEd, A10 provided a hands-on demonstration of the system’s incredible performance and security features. FPGA and ASIC technology coupled with fast Intel Xeon CPUs deliver the highest connections per second, throughput, DDoS SYN Flood protection, and SSL performance per RU. Scale increases 8x in a Virtual Chassis (aVCS) configuration, including over 1Tbps throughput for Thunder 6430 and 6430S. Best of all, perhaps, is its “green” efficiency, providing a highly compact 1 RU design that delivers the highest performance per watt.