F5 Advanced WAF Reviews

We use F5 Advanced WAF to protect web applications on HTTPS, APIs, and portals.

F5 Advanced WAF helps our engineers to learn the complete configuration, including fundamental and advanced policies.

Most customers encounter stability issues with the product's Big-IP logs. It works slowly while retrieving logs.

We have been using F5 Advanced WAF since this year.

The product is more stable than Fortinet.

The product has modular appliances. It works well, scalability-wise.

The technical support services are good. The team includes professional engineers to communicate with the customers regarding cases.

It is easy to set up F5 Advanced WAF. Although, it is difficult to deploy and maintain compared to Fortinet. The deployment process involves gathering customer information regarding virtual servers to be protected. Later, we select the best design suitable for their requirements and start with license provisioning. Further, we configure LTM with special servers and nodes and proceed with configuring the security policy and advanced directory. It takes a week to protect the infrastructure fully. Once we have license provisioning, it is good to run.

F5 Advanced WAF's pricing is high. Fortinet and some other vendors are more affordable.

F5 Advanced WAF has good capabilities, powerful tools, and professional services. I advise others to compare pricing with vendors in terms of their use cases before purchasing the product.

I rate it a ten out of ten.

Our clients mostly have their own applications, such as banking apps, and use F5 Advanced WAF to avoid vulnerabilities and threats on both the application layer and transport layer. 

We create web policies for their apps and configure ASM signatures to prevent vulnerabilities. After configuring the policies, I monitor logs continuously to block vulnerability attacks and assist clients in addressing any issues.

One of the things that surprised me the most about F5 devices is their compatibility with the existing infrastructure of most customers. They can be easily integrated between the main firewall and back end servers, making it a seamless addition to enhance security.

The traffic learning feature stands out as the most valuable. When an app is accessed, the log generated in F5 Advanced WAF provides suggestions on what actions to take. This feature is particularly beneficial in new vulnerability scenarios, offering guidance based on learned data. 

Additionally, I appreciate the way F5 Advanced WAF builds policies by configuring a basic policy and queuing it in learning mode. The solution learns from logs, and based on that learning, I configure ASM signatures.

The GUI interface can be confusing due to similar-looking tabs for policy building, traffic learning, and event logs. A more explanatory GUI would be beneficial. However, F5 solutions are a bit expensive compared to others, although they provide the best service and options.

I have been working with F5 Advanced WAF for around six months.

The solution is very stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

F5 Advanced WAF is very scalable, and I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.

F5 support is excellent and deserves a ten out of ten. Their technical support is responsive and helpful, making the overall experience very satisfactory.

Positive

I have not worked with many other vendors as extensively as F5, but I have some knowledge of FortiWAF. FortiWAF has fewer options compared to F5, particularly in features like iRULES, which offers more flexibility for traffic management and coding.

The initial setup is not very lengthy. Once the device is on-premises, configuring and managing it is quite efficient, though the entire project from start to end may take about a month to a month and a half.

I work with a team of five to six network engineers across different cities, providing support and collaboration for client deployments.

The return on investment is quite high with F5 solutions. Customers prefer F5 for their superior service and features, despite the higher cost.

F5 is on the expensive side but offers superior solutions and options. Customers are willing to pay for the quality and features provided.

I have some knowledge of FortiWAF, but F5 provides more options, especially with features like iRULES for managing traffic.

I would recommend F5 Advanced WAF to other users. It provides excellent features, flexibility, and support.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

It's considered one of the modules for the LTM box. It's all modules for the LTM box.

It is actually to protect the customer web application which is published on the internet. It's actually to protect that, and nowadays, we also have this threat intelligence. You will link to the F5 centra, the depository of the threat intelligence database. We always have the latest update on the common threat that is happening currently. You will notify the customer if there's an issue.

The threat intelligence function is great. Nowadays, there is more awareness on the security side. They'd have a real-time update from F5. It provides peace of mind on the security side for the customer.

It is an add-on module to protect the web application.

The solution can scale with planning.

The solution is stable.

Support is helpful.

The deployment side is quite complex. We'd like them to simplify the implementation process. I'm not sure whether they can do that, however, they have to be very detailed on configurations, and sharing of the policy. Anybody that configures this box, the WAF, they have to have knowledge of the application and some of the security portions there as well.

We've had the solution since last year. We have deployed it to a customer.

It is stable. Actually, it evolved from ASM, what they call the Application Security Manager, and now they name it Advanced WAF. It's been around for a while. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

We'll size up based on the customer requirement with some buffer, maybe 20% to 30% for the future extension. There is also some consideration on the capacity planning and the size of the box. You can scale. You just need to plan ahead. 

In terms of users, with Advanced WAF, normally their role is more related to the security side.

We just implemented the solution recently and we'll have to wait another three or four years before we change or upgrade the solution. 

I've dealt with technical support. We're quite satisfied with them. They're good. 

Positive

F5 WAF is a web application, in the firewall domain, they have been in the market for a very long time. They know the requirements and the market trends very well. This is the reason why we normally chose F5.

The solution is pretty difficult to set up. You really have to have a grasp o the product to configure it correctly.

The setup takes approximately two months. It's quite a long time. If the application is not ready, then the dependency will be on the application side. Therefore, the cycle is quite long. It depends on the application readiness.

We just need one to two people to handle deployment and maintenance. 

The licensing is charged yearly. It's considered expensive, however, there are more expensive WAFs on the market - like Imperva. F5 is second after Imperva in terms of cost. L1 to L3 support is included in the cost.

I'd rate the price of the solution at a four out of five in terms of how expensive it is.

We tend to stay with F5, however, we will look at pricing and try to negotiate based on that. We'd like to get a discount and look at the market to see the costs. 

I'd advise that new users need to know the requirement expectations, and then the criticality of the application that they're going to let the user use. Sometimes the application is public to the internet for a public user to log into and query the database. In that case, we're exposed to all kinds of external parties. So if you put something that is cheap in place, something that is not able to do the protection properly, then it will be a very big risk to the company. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. Our clients have been very happy with it.

I was in charge of the F5 on-premises solution, where I published several applications for certificate verification and protected various applications. Additionally, I was working with botnets.

F5 Advanced WAF is a comprehensive community platform with a strong commitment, making it valuable for businesses. The capabilities on GitHub are highly appreciated, allowing me to count on F5 for reliability.

I would like to see improved features in the F5 Advanced WAF solution, especially with a focus on enabling Kubernetes fully. The database needs better service discussions and updates on communication. Additional improvements could also be made in asset management for the data.

I've been working with F5 for what seems like a lengthy period.

F5 is logistics-oriented, ensuring that the Webpack performs well in making every single case for the Stereo platform.

F5 is scalable, especially for Stellar and virtualization processes. Customers can scale efficiently.

F5's technical support team is commendable. They are professional and take high-priority prompts seriously.

Positive

My experience includes comparing F5 with FortiWeb. F5 provides more security capabilities for applications than FortiWeb.

The initial setup of the F5 Advanced WAF solution involves multiple stages and might require revisiting configurations based on customer needs. The setup can be complex compared to other options.

I am part of the deployment and implementation team, and we follow a strategy that involves providing quality assurance to ensure data integrity and server protection. Collaboration and dialogue with customers are part of the implementation.

Customers have shown consistent ROI with F5 solutions, especially when daily requests come in for assistance.

The user interface and sub-management prices can be a concern, however, they generally align with the industry's needs.

I recommend the F5 Advanced WAF solution for everyone with critical applications. Security needs to be embedded within the full visualization pipeline, allowing significant savings. I rate F5 Advanced WAF at a nine out of ten.

We use this solution for load balancing and web application firewall (WAF) services. We use the solution standalone and not integrated with other solutions.

It provides web application security and reduces bot attacks.

The web attack signatures are very important for detecting attacks, and the bot detection capability is an important feature that works well with F5 Advanced WAF.

The product could be more user-friendly for administrators. The user interface could be easier.

I have been using it for almost three years.

The solution is very stable. I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.

Very scalable. We use this solution for multiple customers and across data centers.

The solution offers good support. That said, sometimes it takes too much time to reach the right person.

Positive

I have also worked with Citrix NetScaler and F5 products, depending on customer needs.

The initial configuration is not too difficult, but subsequent configurations can be complex because they depend on customer needs.

I don't have direct knowledge of the pricing. From what I know, it is not too expensive compared to other solutions.

I am familiar with F5 and Citrix NetScaler solutions.

I recommend this product to others because of its effectiveness in mitigating threats.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

In Pakistan, the banking and financial sector requires F5 WAF solutions. I worked with other companies that had more clients, but my current company is a start-up. We have Palo Alto business, but we're trying to get F5 business.

F5 products are highly stable, top-notch solutions, and we have also the expertise to deploy and design the F5 and Palo Alto product lines. I have more than 10 years of experience with F5 and Palo Alto. I have deployed around F5 products for around seven or eight customers of F5.

F5 should consider adding network detection and response.

We have been using F5 solutions for two years, including load balancers and Advanced WAF.

Advanced WAF is highly stable.

F5 products are scalable, and they have an excellent R&D department. Their product is constantly maturing.

F5 technical support is excellent. They are experts who always provide the right solution, and they understand the problem. Their response and resolution times are good.

Advanced WAF is a difficult product for new users, but it's not too challenging if you have experience. Nevertheless, F5 products are generally considered to be hard to deploy. 

F5's hardware product line is called BIG-IP, and they have many software licenses for IP DNS, Advanced WAF, APM, anti-spam, etc. We have around 10 licenses.

I rate F5 Advanced WAF 10 out of 10. I would highly recommend the entire F5 product line.

It is used for application security and load balancing. As we have a few customers who are using banking applications, and stock market applications, they are more concerned about security and how to protect the product and their business applications. And that's why we offer security applications. Besides that, there are new features for load balancing in the F5.

Customers find the load balancer feature as the most valuable.

The tool needs to improve its pricing. 

I have been using it for two years.

It is a very stable product. It is the favourite product of banking customers in Egypt.

It is a very scalable product. You can write down any iRule you want as it is very convenient.

We used Citrix ADC, Fortinet FortiWeb, and Barracuda before F5 Advanced WAF. We switched to F5 Advanced WAF due to its efficiency and the port lockdown feature that the customers in Egypt like. Also since it's certified by Gartner, the customers feel confident using it.

The initial setup was simple.

If you are looking for a really good product, you should consider F5 Advanced WAF.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

We have several websites that are exposed to external users. We have a website for interaction with supply chain customers. We also have a website that gives access to CRM functionality to allow our customers to open tickets and disputes. F5 WAF is at the front for security and attack mitigation. It ensures that users are able to access only allowed pages.

The web application firewall itself is most valuable. It provides positive security and negative security. In negative security, it blocks a task such as cross-site scripting, code injection, etc. In positive security, it lets you specify and enforce things, such as the parameters allowed in username and password fields and the number of characters allowed in a field.

It also has antivirus and DDoS mitigation capabilities. We have enabled these features. 

It is also quite intuitive and user-friendly. They have several webinars that are actually like labs. You can use these webinars to learn about how to use all features of the product.

Its price should be better. It is expensive.

In general, it is stable and reliable. Over the past few months, several vulnerabilities were found in the product, but which product doesn't have vulnerabilities? The main question is how fast do you get the fix for it, and they provided the fix quite quickly. We had to upgrade it as soon as possible to mitigate the risks.

I didn't try to expand it. We have two staff members who are using F5 Advanced WAF.

In terms of its usage, we are deploying it on all points through which we are exposing services, but we are currently not exposing too many services.

I had only one case for which I had to call tech support. It wasn't a straightforward ticket. It was quite a challenging ticket. Eventually, they found a solution, but it took some time. It was challenging to find the bug in one of the previous versions. They also didn't know about it. We did the troubleshooting together until we found the problem.

We were using another solution before switching to F5 Advanced WAF. We didn't have success with that solution because the integrator failed to deploy it properly. It was more complex and not user-friendly.

It was a little bit complex. If you want to add an additional layer or model like APM with two-factor authentication, then it requires a little bit more integration.

It is expensive. Its price should be better.

Its licensing is on a yearly basis. Its licensing is also based on the model. There are no additional costs.

I would recommend this solution to other users. I will advise others to learn a little bit about how the HTTP protocol works. They should be familiar with the functionality of the product. They should not use it without understanding what they are actually doing.

I would rate F5 Advanced WAF a nine out of ten.