F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Reviews

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.

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.

• Load balancing
• Certificate management
• Pooling of services

• Load balancing deployments
• Active pools and standby pools for high availability.

• Load balancing
• Being able to adjust headers. 
• Request response headers. 
• Patching issues in the load balancer that we don't want in the application layer.

Certificate management needs improvement. I would like automated deployment of new certificates without manual intervention to be in the next release of this product.

The product is very stable. We put a decent amount of stress on it given our load.

It seems to be a very scalable product. 

As for the size of our environment, we have our own data center, but it's a small data center.

I would give it a nine out of ten for its stability and feature set, as well as the way it handles our load.

Definitely consider this product on your product evaluation list.

It is the front-end to the cloud for all the services in our data center. So, it sort of integrates with all of our services.

We have yet to integrate it with AWS.

In Vietnam, F5 provides better services.

When I put F5 into my network, it works better. 

The pricing could be improved.

Scalability seems fine.

Technical support was helpful when we contacted them.

The pricing is inclusive of many features.

We evaluated NetScaler. F5 is the better product for our location.

• LTM for balancing
• ASM for WAF

I'm a system integrator, not a customer. Usually F5 meets customer expectations well. It's best of breed and an industry leader.

Security and Reporting.

As a pre-sale engineer, I'm not working with the F5 solution but I'm studying F5's features and competitor benchmarking.

When WAF is enabled, you can see a decrease in performance.

Not to date.

Very good.

Citrix NetScaler. F5 supports better features, from load balancing to security and application visibility. NetScaler is better with a VDI solution.

Not applicable.

F5 is more expensive than other solutions, so you have to be sure F5 is the best solution to fit the requirements.

Citrix, RadWare, and LBL.

You need the right skills to deploy it. Complex deployment requires TCL language knowledge.

My primary use cases of this solution are as a big IP solution, a WAF solution, EPM, and reverse proxy.

This product has improved our load balance, especially when it comes to using the termination at the A5 level, making us more efficient.

The most valuable features are the WAF and the big IP.

I've been using this solution for over eight years.

This solution is very stable.

My impression is that it's scalable.

The initial setup was straightforward, but it took some time to complete.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

We use the solution to offer load balancing to companies and especially for state and government company.

One of the best features of the solution is the operating system. Additionally, it is easy to use and has plenty of features.

The configuration is intricate and could be improved. 

For a future release, I would like to see more features in the cloud.

The price of the solution is sometimes expensive.

I rate F5 BIG-IP an eight out of ten.

We use F5 for the load balancing of our equipment. We use it for DDoS functionalities in our security solution. 

This solution is the best security platform. We have even attached it to another security platform solution for DDoS.

They need to improve the interface and some of the functionalities.

It is very stable. We have not had many problems.

We don't need additional features to grow out the platform.

The occasion in which we needed technical support, we didn't have problems with them, because they always answered our questions without any trouble.