F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security comparison

The compared F5 and Imperva solutions aren't in the same category. F5 is ranked #2 in ADC , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 15.3% mindshare in the category. Imperva is ranked #2 in DS , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 30.5% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Imperva users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Read 120 F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) reviews

7,569 Views
6,279 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

Read 55 Imperva SecureSphere Database Security reviews

4,095 Views
2,614 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler, F5, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC).

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Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (2nd)

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Security (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 15.3%, down 15.9% compared to last year.
Imperva SecureSphere Database Security, on the other hand, focuses on Database Security, holds 30.5% mindshare, down 31.8% since last year.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Database Security

Q&A Highlights

Madhav Karki

Network/System Engineer at NA

May 11, 2020

What is the performance parameter of Imperva X10K versus BIG-IP i2600?

Performance parameters if of Imperva X10K and BIG-IP i2600 may be checked in the following links: https://www.imperva.com/resources/datasheets/Imperva-DS-SECURESPHERE-APPLIANCE-Web092118-1.pdf https://www.f5.com/pdf/products/big-ip-platforms-datasheet.pdf One of the most important parameters being checked for both is their throughput and mutually they have 10G throughput.

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Featured Reviews

Mahmoud-Yassin

Head of IT Infrastructure and Security Operations at United Arab Bank

You can fully automate disaster recovery

LTM's cloud capabilities could be improved. Cloud providers all offer load balancing, but you can't get the same level of security. F5's cloud service is still not on par with its on-prem service. F5 acquired multiple companies a few years ago, but they still haven't integrated those solutions. For example, F5 acquired Shape Security, which had an excellent solution for detecting bots and automated login attacks, but F5 offers the solution in an inflexible way. It is only available as a cloud-based solution. It isn't zone-based. Some companies are restricted from sending financial data outside the country because of GDPR in Europe or other national regulations. Here in the UAE, we can't send host data out.

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Andrew_Kampolo

Senior Manager at Zamtel (Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited)

The fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database

Imperva's most valuable features are ease of use and log correlation. I also like the ability to trace activity from the host machine to the server access, the user details, and the exact query that they executed. If a database administrator or application process executes a query on the database, people know exactly what was executed, including all the variables. For example, it will tell you how many rows they were trying to select on which table, and you get the OS information, network details, IPs, and the user. That fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It improves the overall performance of applications by decreasing the burden on servers associated with managing and maintaining applications and network sessions, as well as by performing application-specific tasks."

"I've worked a little bit with iRules and it is amazing."

"The setup is pretty easy."

"It provides first-tier firewalling, for you application. And it provides server load-balancing, it provides optimization, and it provides a proxy feature, where your users cannot directly access your server. It acts as a fully proxy architecture. It has client-side and server-side connections, both, and they're separate."

"The initial setup is easy."

"F5 BIG-IP is used with good applications and functions as an application firewall with additional features. We will not use any feature or any service unless there is a business case and there is a need for implementation."

"You can create multiple virtual servers on F5 BIG-IP technology, and within multiple virtual servers you can have multiple nodes, where a node equals two application servers."

"Initial setup was straightforward. We were up and running in three hours."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

"A solution which does what other name brand products do for a lower cost."

"It has a user-friendly interface. It is a stable and scalable product."

"The performance of the solution is good."

"Imperva's most valuable features are ease of use and log correlation. I also like the ability to trace activity from the host machine to the server access, the user details, and the exact query that they executed. If a database administrator or application process executes a query on the database, people know exactly what was executed, including all the variables."

"The most valuable feature is the automatic reports on new databases, which gives us up-to-date inventory management."

"It has a very user-friendly interface that's very detailed."

"We use it for database security, vulnerability analysis, discovery, and handling requests from applications and users."

"Database reporting features are valuable to us."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security pros

Cons

"Based on my experience using F5 and by only taking into consideration the last seven years, I have found that the reporting mechanism is bad."

"Technical support is somewhat slow and could be improved."

"The product is expensive."

"The price for F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is very high. This aspect could be improved."

"It would be good to have better traffic and better data. It would be nice to have more granularity to see packets in terms of the header details, the analytics, etc. It would be nice if that was also part of it and to have analytics added to the traffic."

"One improvement could be updating the user interface (UI)."

"If one virtual portion is unavailable, it can cause issues."

"The solution could improve the ease of use, the management could be simplified. Other solutions are easier to use."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

"The platform doesn’t support some newer databases."

"I have worked with IBM before, and I prefer its ease of deployment and management. Imperva SecureSphere Database Security has tricky deployment, whereas IBM's deployment is straightforward because of the UI."

"The only challenge I see is that SecureSphere is deployed on servers or databases which are held on physical infrastructure. However, there are databases which are hosted on cloud platforms and Imperva has a separate tool altogether for that, not SecureSphere."

"Once we read the activity logs on the platform, we cannot open them anywhere else as they are stored in a proprietary format."

"Sometimes the reports are cumbersome, and you have to drill down to get more information."

"Technical support for this solution needs improvement."

"It would be better to update the solution by using a GUI that guides me, rather than through a CLI."

"There is sometimes lost communication and it can take a lot of troubleshooting to solve."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model of F5 BIG-IP LTM is highly complex. The operation cost of the solution is high. The overall cost is high."

"F5 BIG-IP is a stable solution. It is quite mature and does not have many concerns."

"Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors."

"It could be priced a little less, especially on the virtual side. It gets a bit expensive, but you get what you pay."

"Our company pays for the licensing cost on a yearly basis. Also, there are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"It was probably a one-time purchase and then you have maintenance, but I don't have the details on that. We bought what they called the Best bundle at the time, which pretty much included all of the modules. There was probably no additional cost afterward."

"It is a bit expensive product. Kemp Loadmaster is much cheaper than F5. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It can be for one year or three years."

"It's not a cheap product, but there are no other replacements for what we do with it."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

"The product is expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable and competitive."

"They have introduced new price models, which makes the product more affordable now."

"Its pricing could be cheaper for the African countries or developing economies. The British pound is valued way more than the currency of most African countries. A better or cheaper pricing model for Nigerian and African customers would be better. It has a per-year subscription model. You pay exactly for what you need. That's all. You don't have to buy what you don't need."

"Licensing fees are on a yearly basis, and it is a good value for the money."

"The setup and license are quite expensive."

"The cost of support for this solution is very expensive."

"There is an annual licensing fee for upgrading the device."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

14%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?

There are no specific areas for improvement as it is already well-resolved and doesn't require further enhancements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP?

The primary use case includes load balancing to serve application servers and basic web application firewall solutions. Our customers use it for that purpose.

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)?

The solution is robust and reliable.

See all answers

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

My recommendation is Imperva.

See all answers

How does IBM Guardium Data Protection compare with Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a solution for database security from IBM that gives complete visibility, control, and analysis to secure sensitive data and comply with regulations. IBM S...

See all answers

What do you like most about Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?

The tool's pricing is flexible and affordable for small and medium enterprises.

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 18% of the time

NetScaler vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 7% of the time

HAProxy vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 7% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 63% of the time

Oracle Audit Vault vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 19% of the time

DataSunrise Database Security vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 9% of the time

Trustwave DbProtect vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 5% of the time

jSonar vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 2% of the time

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

January 2025

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

Buyer's Guide

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

January 2025

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security report

Download Imperva SecureSphere Database Security product report

Also Known As

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP

No data available

Overview

F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security:

Audits all access to sensitive data.
Alerts or blocks database attacks and unauthorized activities, in real time.
Detects and virtually patches database vulnerabilities.
Identifies excessive user rights and dormant users, and enables a complete rights review cycle.
Accelerates incident response and forensics investigations with advanced analytics.

Imperva

Sample Customers

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.

BlueCross BlueShield, eHarmony, EMF Broadcasting, GE Healthcare, Metro Bank, The Motley Fool, Siemens

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

January 2025

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