F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Reviews

Implementing load balancing services inside managed hosting services based on VMware solutions. The solution is presented as IaaS. F5 BIG-IP VE will be implemented in cooperation with the Cisco ACI solution.

F5 will improve our position in the customer service market. We plan to create packages of services from which it will be possible to build comprehensive tailor-made solutions.

Beyond the basic balancing function, other modules are important to us. In particular, a web application firewall, application security module, and a remote access module for customer applications.

As a service provider, we will target F5 BIG-IP VE solutions to customers who request infrastructure as a service. Improvements should enable customers to build a tailor-made solution in the future through a service portal.

Still implementing.

I am an integrator. I implement solutions for our customers.

It's straightforward deployment application delivery control. 

Our customers have a lot of services that are public, in their internal network and external public network.

They use F5 BIG-IP to publish these services in a secure manner.

They use it for publish billing system services, and some uses for their internal services, such as the DNS active directory.

F5 BIG IP is a rock-solid solution. It's a very good solution.

I am very satisfied with the quality of this product.

There is a lot of documentation available.

I'm not very familiar with the services pattern. I am still exploring the features of this solution.

I am just working with a single application, which we need to publish. I don't know how many services they are using, and what kind of services they operate.

Technical support could be improved.

I am still a bit of a novice. I have only been using F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) for a year.

We are currently deploying this on the service providers but dealing with the IT department for our customers.

It's an enterprise network that is servicing the internal IT traffic for our customers. This is traffic from the IT management systems, and billing systems.

All systems have bugs, and F5 is not an exception. 

In my experience, I didn't face any critical bugs that stopped the deployment. 

I don't think that F5 is worse than other vendors in this perspective.

I had some cases where I contacted technical support.

They have a good quality level of support and have helped us resolve our issues.

However, I have had a situation where I had a bad experience, but overall it's not the norm, it was just an exception.

I would compare technical support with Cisco, although I would say that Cisco is better.

Technical support could improve.

The setup of the F5 BIG-IP system is a very straightforward process. It is very well documented and is described on the vendor information systems.

They provide a lot of information on their site and on the central portal. You can even find information on YouTube. 

I am not familiar with the price of this solution.

I would recommend this solution to others. I am very satisfied with it.

I would rate F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) a nine out of ten.

On-premises

We use it to deliver services on the cloud.

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.

• Application security
• Automation
• Orchestration
• It is a fast and available solution. 

They have to scale, developing more products.

I would like them to have more flexible models.

One to three years.

It is the perfect solution when you have high workloads in your IT environment.

They have the potential to scale in better way.

I have integrated F5 rules for AWS with web exploits and OWASP Rules, and it is so easy to deploy.

There are three relevant things about purchasing through the AWS Marketplace:

1. It Increase protection against web attacks.
2. It integrates with AWS WAF, which makes it easy to deploy without changes to your infrastructure.
3. F5 manages your AWS WAF rules, so you don't have to.

We purchased through the AWS Marketplace because it was a popular way to go, and we were intrigued. The price of this product is not an issue. They have good pricing and licensing.

It helps you to manage workloads in a better way on your cloud environment.

I also have integrated it on my private cloud.

Publishing of many applications through the F5 reverse proxy to the Internet.

We are also using the F5 as an IdP server.

• It makes the publishing of applications to the Internet safer.
• Permanent updates give us more security.

• The automatic inspection of, e.g., SSL (TLS) traffic. 
• It is an easy way to build application policies (graphical).

It would help to get more training, even better in local languages. While we are able to speak and understand English, sometimes it is much easier to use the language you truly understand.

One to three years.

The primary use case is the common use case for everyone. It has performed well.

The benefit is security. It's able to track issues, the attacks. So that enables us to catch the attacks before they hit us. We are able to nail them down.

DDOS protection.

They can improve on the DDOS solution and have more stable solutions.

It's stable.

I haven't done any upgrades yet, but it is scalable to some extent.

Technical support is good. I would rate it seven out of 10.

The most important criteria when selecting a vendor are the market value, the cost, and the stability of the product.

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10 because it fulfills my requirements.

We use it for local traffic management and for the application firewall. We are trying to deploy virtual appliances in AWS. 

It has improved our program performance and security.

• The web application firewall.
• The configuration and integration into the AWS environment was pretty easy.
  

We would like to see load balancing between the cloud and the on-premise, a straightforward deployment feature.

More than five years.

The stability is almost there. Sometimes it hangs or there are unpredictable performance issues.

It's easier to scale.

Technical support could be better.

The price is high.

We looked at A10. When deciding whether to go with F5 or A10 it depends on the business requirements. Sometimes I propose one and sometimes I propose the other. It depends on the customer's requirements and budget. For our internal use we went with F5 because it's the best tool.

The on-prem version and the AWS versions are almost the same.

In terms of the experience purchasing through AWS marketplace, because we are a partner, the way we purchase it from AWS is different. We don't buy directly from the market.

Overall, it's a good product.

LTM is a full-reverse proxy, handling connections from clients. The F5 LTM uses Virtual Services (VSs) and Virtual IPs (VIPs) to configure a load balancing setup for a service. We have used this feature in many applications, especially for HTTP and HTTPS.

There is room for improvement with their firmware quality control. A bug in the firmware caused hardware failures.

I have been using it for one year.

Unfortunately, we faced hardware failures and a lot of other problems, as well.

With the hardware failure problem, we faced a management problem via the GUI. We could only manage the device through the CLI. The issue was caused by a firmware bug.

In addition, health check statistics like CPU and memory utilization were not correct.

It is F5’s responsibility to solve those problems, and I don’t know how they can release firmware with such bugs to their customers.

F5 support can be rated low on the scale, as there is a problem regarding handover between their engineers when we follow-up with them about some technical cases.

I recommend considering NetScaler, as well.

I've checked out the market and I think Big-IP/Viprion is the best ADC your money can buy at the moment. It has the features and innovations that demanding organizations like us desire in an ADC especially for diverse and complex application environments. F5 has a solid offering with its iRules, iControl and iApps and we use its DevCentral portal. We take advantage of the integration with both Eclipse and .NET/Visual Basic which is a nice plus.

It’s quite expensive compared to the other vendors. F5 lacks a pay-as-you-grow licensing scheme as offered by other companies, which makes acquiring their products more expensive at the outset.F5’s support for low-end platforms is also dismal, with continued restrictions imposed on such systems making it difficult for them to cater to small to medium-sized business. You might be forced to buy more expensive systems just to get the features you want and not the performance benefits of the more expensive system.I'm also concerned about F5’s continued push on new hardware platforms to generate sales.Finally, one must be able to handle the complexity and knowledge required for deploying F5’s ADC products. Selecting a reliable and experienced partner is crucial to get the right configuration for your needs and for you to be able to maximize your ADC investment.

Top of the line ADC with great features. Just make sure you have the right partner in implementing your solution so as the business value of such an expensive product is maximized.