Aruba ClearPass and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) are competing network security solutions. Users tend to favor Aruba ClearPass due to its competitive pricing and support, although F5 BIG-IP APM is perceived as more feature-rich, appealing to those seeking extensive functionality.
Features: Aruba ClearPass offers excellent integration capabilities, a comprehensive set of NAC features, and robust security through modules like OnGuard for posture assessment. Meanwhile, F5 BIG-IP APM is valued for its user-friendly login interface, customizable portals, and reliable authentication solutions compatible with a wide range of vendors.
Room for Improvement: Aruba ClearPass is considered complex, with clarity needed in licensing models and third-party integration. Users suggest enhancements in its user interface, reporting capabilities, and integration methods. For F5 BIG-IP APM, improvements are needed in integration with identity providers and reporting functions. Initial setup and user documentation could also be streamlined.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aruba ClearPass offers deployment flexibility with on-premises and hybrid options and is often praised for proactive support, although responsiveness could be better. F5 BIG-IP APM similarly offers multiple deployment choices but has been criticized for complex technical support interactions and costly service.
Pricing and ROI: Pricing for Aruba ClearPass can be complex, yet is generally seen as competitive with good returns. F5 BIG-IP APM is more expensive, but users feel this is justified by its comprehensive security and management capabilities. Both solutions provide ROI through enhanced data security and operational performance improvements.
Using Aruba ClearPass has resulted in less engineering time compared to other products we've used.
Portnox is one level up, as their customer support is outstanding.
We have local support, so it's much easier.
We have escalated questions to tech support, and I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
If there is a solution, they don't always communicate it.
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
I believe the scalability of ClearPass is rated as ten out of ten.
Aruba ClearPass is very scalable.
In our environment, ClearPass handles up to 100,000 users, which is better than some other NAC solutions like Fortinox that scale up to 25,000.
The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.
I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.
On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
The language and policy enforcement mechanisms are not clear, making it difficult to use the product effectively.
A more streamlined menu of licensing options would be helpful.
It is also better to improve threat intelligence for built-in threat detection and prevention.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) does not have a direction for SaaS.
Aruba ClearPass is a premium product with higher pricing, which seems unnecessary given its complexity.
We cannot mix in prices, and of course, prices are going higher.
Achieving the best price requires careful selection from a menu of licensing options.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
The most effective feature for us is the OnGuard feature.
The ClearPass solution has reduced the amount of engineering time compared to previous solutions, making it more efficient for our purposes.
APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.
It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
Aruba ClearPass is a network access control (NAC) solution that provides a range of security and access management capabilities for wired, wireless, and VPN networks. ClearPass enables organizations to secure their networks and devices, enforce security policies, and provide secure access to network resources.
Aruba ClearPass Features
Aruba ClearPass has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
Aruba ClearPass Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing Aruba ClearPass. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Aruba ClearPass is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it’s easy to use, has a valuable Guest Captive Portal and virtual security enforcement, and has a good web dashboard and policy manager.
“It is easy to use and more integrated with the Aruba wireless networks,” says Muhammad N., Network & Information Security Engineer at a healthcare company.
Ammar F., Head of IT at Hubtech, explains, “What I like most about Aruba ClearPass is that it has the best enforcement feature for the network. I also like its Guest Captive Portal and virtual security enforcement features, but the virtual security enforcement feature is still under testing by my company. Aruba ClearPass also has a wonderful UI which I find valuable."
Another PeerSpot reviewer mentions, "The web dashboard and the policy manager are very intuitive and very easy for the engineers to use."
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.
BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.
BIG-IP APM Benefits:
BIG-IP APM Features:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.
Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."
Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."
Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.
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