F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Reviews

We use the product for load balancing. We use it to read, understand, and direct traffic.

The solution helps us to distribute the load.

Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product.

The solution’s automation is not good. The solution’s GUI looks very old.

I have been using the solution for four years.

The solution is stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

The scalability of the product is high. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten. Seven people in my organization are using the product.

The initial setup was complex.

The deployment was done in-house.

We see an ROI on the solution.

The product is very expensive.

We have specific cookies with stickiness. The product should not be used for WAF. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

I primarily used the solution for portal access.

It was scalable.

The solution is stable and reliable. 

The portal access was very good.

The initial setup was complex.

They could do a better job on the reporting and how we can use the data, provide more detail on the reporting logs, and show how we can export them and have graphical views. The reporting doesn't have graphical views, which makes things hard. You have basic reports that you can export, however, it's not that easy to use. The reporting needs to be improved a bit.

I have used the solution for a couple of years.

It was very stable, the solution itself. However, the underlying software, the LTM software, had an issue when we deployed with the failover. The APM itself, the access policy manager, I find the solution a great, great tool. It's very stable. We used it for years and we deployed it for approximately more than 100 applications at the same time which is why it took so long to implement.

For the organization I was working for, there are different solutions being used. I would say, in terms of the number of users, F5 was around 10,000.

It was scalable enough for our purposes.

I did not use something previously, however, after using this solution I did use a different product.

The initial setup was not easy. It was pretty complex.

I was the integrator. I worked as an integrator for the solution. I worked as an expert and it still took six to nine months to implement that.

Maintenance requires a team. It's not one person. It's a team that is managing not only APM. They were managing a component like a load balancer. They were managing network components. They were managing many other components. That team was a big team of maybe 15 to 20 people working across different profiles.

I worked as an integrator and would implement the solution for clients.

I’d rate the solution eight out of ten.

Due to COVID-19, almost all of our customers are buying the virtual edition now. Our customers use this solution for connecting people from home to the office. APM is security encrypted and allows them to create an SSO (through a third-party) so they can access just about anything they could from their office computer, under normal circumstances. Everything is in one portal, including your SAS application and on-premise application.

F5 is great for handling complex issues. Most of our big customers, including banks and insurance companies like it, because it's such a robust platform that enables them to do almost anything. 

Also, the new GUI seems to be very quick and simple for users, and our customers appreciate speed.

Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better. In the last two to three years, there has been a slight degradation in regards to their service. Another company bought them and from that point on, their service hasn't been the same. 

I think it's a very mature product. I have known them for more than 10 years and I have yet to witness any scenario or use case that they are not capable of handling.

In order to reach more customers, their marketing could be better. They are a nice company but they are not aggressive like their main competitors; they are trying, but if they're serious, they need to focus on the cloud in order to compete with larger companies.

It would be nice if they would incorporate their own SSO solution, so you don't have to use a third-party. At the same time, customers don't want to pay for a service like Cisco Duo, mostly, they just want a free token.

I have been selling APM for roughly two years.

Our customers have never complained about the stability. This solution is the key which allows our customers to work from home and it's very stable, it has to be.

This solution is also very scalable. Due to COVID-19, companies have had to move from, say, 100 concurrent users, possibly up to 500 or more, and it still works very well. 

Recently, they have simplified their licensing. Two years ago it was much more complex. It's very simple for our customers to understand; however, the cloud is not simple because it's per consumption, so you don't know in advance how much you're going to pay.

Due to a bug issue, some customers felt they needed to upgrade to protect themselves from hackers. Thankfully, our security vendors advised us on this issue. They told us the risks and spent a few days updating our software. For this reason, they are a vendor I can trust.

Honesty is important because there are a lot of allocation websites, personal information, and data at stake.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give F5 Access Policy Manager a rating of nine.

We primarily use the solution for access management.

The solution is stable and reliable.

The scalability is good.

The solution is pretty technical.

The initial setup is complex. 

The solution is quite costly.

The solution could offer better reporting.

The management aspect of the solution needs improvement. 

I've used the solution for one year. 

The product is stable. I haven't noticed any bugs or glitches and I haven't seen it crash or freeze. It seems to be reliable and the performance is good.

The solution can scale if a company needs to expand it. It's not a problem.

I've been able to work with technical support in the past and I have had positive experiences. When we have issues, they help. We are satisfied with their services. 

The initial setup is not very straightforward or easy. It's complex. 

I can handle the initial setup myself. I do not need the assistance of an integrator or consultant. 

The solution is expensive. It's not a cheap product.

You do need to pay extra for certain features and services. 

Our company didn't use F5 ourselves, however, we sell F5 products. We're resellers.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I'd recommend this solution to other users and companies. 

The tool is reliable and easy to configure. It works with many vendors for authentication purposes. It also helps with applications that require authentication. It is a very good product.

The technical support’s response time must be improved.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable. We can start with a small license. Depending on our needs, we can scale up to bigger installations. It is very easy to upgrade if we are using a VM. Scaling will be difficult if we have hardware. For example, if we buy a 2600 series and then decide to increase the number of users, we can’t do it. We must buy another hardware device.

The technical support must be improved.

Neutral

The product is easy to implement.

People who want to implement the product must ask for a POC and see if it fits their network needs. F5 is more than happy to provide a POC with a partner. We can check if everything is okay and decide whether they must buy the solution. My customers are fine with the functionalities that F5 provides. Overall, I rate the solution an eight and a half out of ten.

This is a product that is easy to install and integrate, and it is simple to use.

The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN.

It allows you remote access to applications, such as those from Microsoft, as well as to our internal website.

The price of this product can be improved.

We have been using F5 APM for one year.

The stability is okay.

Scalability depends on the office and the number of remote users. We have about 50 users.

Using the documentation available on the website, it was easy to set up.

The F5 Access Policy Manager is something that I have experience with and I am happy with it. This is a product that I can recommend for others.

At this point, we don't have requirements beyond what this product provides, so I cannot think of any additional features that it needs.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.