Comments on: Gartner Magic Quadrant ADC, 2007.

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:51:33 +0000

We might be talking past each other indeed! The English language isn’t the most intuitive in the world, and that’s all too often how we get into trouble with one another, isn’t it?

I agree with you, Stray Taoist, feature-rich applications with bad interfaces are just problematic, and also agree that Zeus/ZXTM has one of the best interfaces on the market.

After talking more with Chris offline, I understand what he was trying to say, and we’re on the same page now.

I also agree that Gartner should have mentioned TrafficScript, it’s one of the more powerful features available in ZXTM that raises the bar for scripting capabilities in ADC products.

By: Stray Taoist

Stray Taoist — Thu, 10 May 2007 08:14:31 +0000

Having read Chris’s piece, and your response, I am not sure you both really aren’t talking past each other.

I didn’t take the inference that the lack of an intuitive interface invalidates the existence of a rich feature set. It is the fact that there *isn’t* an intuitive interface (now, people, the only intuitive interface is the nipple, everything else is learnt) *does not* negate anything. Apart from it not being a good interface.

Feature-rich apps with bad interfaces make for an unrewarding user experience. Feature rich apps with slick interfaces (a la Zeus) lever this power better. It isn’t the feature-rich-ness that is in dispute. I don’t think Chris implied that. Or at least, I didn’t read it that way. Evidently, YMMV.

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:14:41 +0000

Help me out here. Are you actually arguing that the lack of an intuitive interface invalidates Gartner’s claim that F5 has a rich feature set? And are you further arguing that the lack of a single page is enough analysis to prove your point?

Please elucidate, because after 6 years of evaluating products in this space, I can’t wait to hear your opinion of which products have more intuitive interfaces than BIG-IP, and why.