I use BIG-IP DNS to replace our DNS servers.
Information Security Specialist at TCB
Good value for money and great traffic management
Pros and Cons
- "BIG-IP DNS's best feature is the Global Traffic Manager (GTM)."
- "F5's technical support responds a little slowly."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
BIG-IP DNS's best feature is the Global Traffic Manager (GTM).
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with BIG-IP DNS for six to eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BIG-IP DNS is stable.
Buyer's Guide
F5 BIG-IP DNS
November 2024
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How are customer service and support?
F5's technical support responds a little slowly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and took around two days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
BIG-IP DNS is more expensive than its competitors like Citrix, but it gives good value for money.
What other advice do I have?
I would give BIG-IP DNS a rating of nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sr. Technical Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Secure, easy to administer, and the speed of operations is good
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to administer."
- "Scalability is a concern, it could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is DNS security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are DNS security and the speed of operations.
It is easy to administer.
What needs improvement?
Pricing could be reduced.
Scalability is a concern, it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with F5 DNS Delivery for approximately two and a half years.
We are working with version 13.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a very stable device.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is not highly scalable because it's an appliance.
Scalability is a concern, and it needs improvement.
Most of the people in our company are using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good. I would rate them an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It is easy to set up.
We have a group of 15 administrators to maintain this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cost is a factor. It is really costly.
Price is an area that can be improved.
What other advice do I have?
It's a good solution, I would recommend using this solution.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
F5 BIG-IP DNS
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP DNS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Technical Services Manager at ProComm technologies
Good support, highly scalable, and compliments business continuity plans
Pros and Cons
- "F5 technical support is quite good and they follow up if there are any issues."
- "I would like to see deeper integration with VMware in the sense that F5 compliments VMware, in the context of application availability."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and F5 DNS Delivery is one of the products that we implement for our customers. This product is normally deployed for high application availability. That means we use the local traffic manager module the most. The DNS module is used for global server load-balancing and fail-over across data centers.
What needs improvement?
The messaging between NGINX and F5 should be simplified. When I do presentations to customers, they sometimes are confused about this issue. It is not clear where NGINX gets into the network.
I would like to see deeper integration with VMware in the sense that F5 compliments VMware, in the context of application availability. VMware has the Site Recovery Manager that looks at the virtual machine side of things. If there's deep integration with VMware, where F5 is able to figure out that an application is impaired and it wants to failover, it should be able to tell VMware to trigger that process.
Better pricing for this product would make it more competitive on the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using F5 DNS Delivery for three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is highly scalable, especially given the fact that you are not confined to one particular port speed. You can upgrade as your traffic grows using different transceivers.
We have customers in several countries. In Botswana, we have between 27 and 35 clients. In Zimbabwe, we have close to 60, and in Zambia, there are fewer than 15.
How are customer service and technical support?
F5 technical support is quite good and they follow up if there are any issues. F5 support is available even before the deployment, right from the pre-sales stage to the deployment itself, as well as after-sales support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also worked with Kemp load balancers and they don't even come close to F5.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Once I have all of the information required in order to deploy, it takes one day to complete.
For my customers, I am deploying the current version, which is 16. For others, we haven't upgraded them. I'm simply patching the areas necessarily as identified by F5.
What about the implementation team?
We are the system integrator and handle the deployment for our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is quite pricey but if you compare the feature set and its compatibility with similar products on the market, you would understand why it's that price. Licensing is either perpetual or subscription-based, depending on the modules that you want.
What other advice do I have?
We're doing a campaign now to question our customers about business resilience using the F5 product. Most customers have invested in business continuity but sometimes they find that what they have done doesn't conform to their own business continuity plans. We go into this type of environment and introduce F5 to ensure that their continuity plans are on point.
In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it. That said, no product is perfect.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Network & Security Specialist at Infrasis
Excellent DNS monitoring and global service load balancing
Pros and Cons
- "BIG-IP DNS's best features are DNS monitoring and global service load balancing."
- "The initial setup could be easier."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use BIG-IP DNS to create business recovery scenarios.
What is most valuable?
BIG-IP DNS's best features are DNS monitoring and global service load balancing.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup could be easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using BIG-IP DNS for four and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BIG-IP DNS is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
BIG-IP DNS is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I'm not happy with F5's technical support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The on-prem version is only available on a yearly license, but the cloud version can be paid for on a day-by-day basis.
What other advice do I have?
BIG-IP DNS is easy to deploy as you can just log in to F5 and request free trial licenses, and the Virtual Edition can be deployed on public and on-prem cloud. I would rate BIG-IP DNS nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Download our free F5 BIG-IP DNS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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Updated: November 2024
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