F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway compete in the load balancing and traffic management category. While F5 offers superior performance for enterprise environments, Azure's flexibility and cloud integration give it an edge in cloud-centric settings.
Features: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager provides robust load balancing and customization with iRules, superior hardware performance for handling complex networks, and support for demanding enterprise environments. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway offers easy deployment in cloud environments, integrated security features, and essential capabilities for cloud-based applications.
Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP LTM users seek enhanced custom roles and permissions, better active-standby configurations, and improved pricing models. They also desire advancements in reporting and GUI interfaces. Azure Application Gateway users suggest enhancements in DDoS protection, UI customization, and additional protocol support, along with pricing adjustments and faster updates to keep pace with evolving security needs.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP LTM is favored for on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments, offering strong technical support and comprehensive documentation, though initial setups may be complex. Azure Application Gateway excels in public cloud environments with straightforward deployment in Azure ecosystems. Its integration within the Microsoft ecosystem enhances deployment and support for users seeking cloud-native solutions.
Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP LTM is generally more expensive with costs varying based on features and modules, potentially impacting smaller clients despite its robust capabilities. Azure Application Gateway's pay-as-you-go model offers cost efficiency and scalability, making it attractive for cloud-focused businesses, though usage can lead to increased costs. Both products offer visible ROI benefits, with Azure's pricing flexibility potentially more accessible for businesses focused on the cloud.
The major return on investment is the security of our data.
We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.
I would rate the technical support of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) nine out of ten.
There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.
There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.
The product is costly.
Azure solutions are quite expensive.
One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication.
We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.
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.
Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.
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