Foundry ServerIron 4G-SSL
[NOTE: This was written some time ago]
There are a lot of application switches out there. Large datacenters and server deployments can’t get away from them, but the small and gawky -sized deployments simply can’t afford them.
The Foundry ServerIron 4G is trying to change that. Priced a little out-of-range of small datacenters but still affordable if essential, the 4G offers nearly all of the features of large, enterprise-grade application switches in a 1U form-factor.
I didn’t get my hands on a -SSL version, but did bake a non-SSL 4G for a couple weeks and it really performed well. Tossed a number of different scenarios and configurations at it, and everything worked great. One of my favorite features is the ability to NAT the requests/responses to/from your application servers, allowing them to act oblivious to the fact there is even an app switch there at all, even if they do tricksy URL rewriting (like the bane of rewriting, BlackBoard the Behemoth).
I’ve used quite a few devices in the application switch space, and the ServerIron 4G is really the only thing in this space that’s worth its price for small/gawky datacenters and server deployments.
