Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) are both solutions in the network security space, offering distinct advantages tailored to organizational needs. Prisma Access is favored for its robust security features and cloud-first approach, while F5 BIG-IP APM stands out with its load balancing and customization capabilities.
Features: Prisma Access is recognized for its cloud-delivered security infrastructure, zero-trust architecture, and WildFire Analysis, providing comprehensive traffic analysis and threat prevention. Its ability to integrate seamlessly with other Palo Alto tools, such as Cortex Data Lake, enhances its value. Meanwhile, F5 BIG-IP APM offers strong customization options, excelling in load balancing and virtual IP creation, crucial for environments requiring precise network traffic management.
Room for Improvement: Prisma Access could improve in supporting custom applications, enhancing pricing flexibility, and resolving latency issues. Users also highlight challenges with third-party integrations. F5 BIG-IP APM could benefit from improved reporting features, a simplified initial setup, and enhancements in automation and GUI, which appear outdated to some users.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Access's cloud-native platform allows efficient hybrid and public cloud deployments. It offers strong support, although delays in case resolution are reported, particularly in complex scenarios. F5 BIG-IP APM is known for its robust on-premises support, though its deployment can be more technical and challenging, requiring skilled personnel.
Pricing and ROI: Prisma Access, despite its high cost, is justified by its unparalleled security and flexibility. The solution reduces the need for multiple point solutions, enhancing ROI through comprehensive security management. F5 BIG-IP APM's pricing is also considered high, but its specialized features and reliability provide value, offering peace of mind for network security and management.
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
If there is a solution, they don't always communicate it.
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
The product is reliable, making customer support less frequently needed.
We rarely need to contact support due to having a strong internal team and a robust product.
The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.
I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.
To scale, one would need to upgrade or acquire more hardware.
Prisma Access provides significant scalability, allowing integration of different systems.
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is a cloud-based solution, and from my experience, there are no issues with scalability.
On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks works efficiently during peak usage times.
I think the stability of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is excellent, and I would rate it ten out of ten.
Prisma Access is very stable.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) does not have a direction for SaaS.
There is a lack of integration with third-party solutions like CrowdStrike or SentinelOne in Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks.
Hosting it in the cloud can mitigate these issues by allowing connection through the nearest Palo Alto or Prisma Cloud regional hub.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
The pricing is on the higher side, rating it around eight to nine out of ten.
From my experience, Palo Alto is more expensive compared to solutions like Netskope and Triscale.
Pricing for Prisma Access and Prisma SD WAN is high due to the need for different hardware flavors like IONs.
It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.
APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
These features are security-driven, providing robust protection against increasing cyber threats by integrating NG Firewalls, SD WAN, and CASB, all within a fully cloud-native solution.
One of the most valuable features of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is the ability to manage on-premise firewalls.
GlobalProtect has been beneficial for its cloud security capabilities, which are vital as businesses seek hybrid options and need to support remote workers while addressing latency issues.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.
BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.
BIG-IP APM Benefits:
BIG-IP APM Features:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.
Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."
Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."
Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks provides consistent security for all users and applications across your remote networks. Prisma Access grants users safe access to the cloud and data center applications and the internet as well. In addition, the solution combines all of your security and networking capabilities into a single cloud-delivered platform, enabling flexible hybrid workforces.
Prisma Access can be managed two ways:
Prisma Access delivers both networking and security services, including:
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Features
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks has many valuable key features including: App-ID, User-ID, Device-ID, SSL Decryption, Dynamic User Group (DUG) Monitoring, AI/ML-Based Detection, IoT Security, Reporting, URL Filtering, Enterprise Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)*, Logging, Policy Automation, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and many more.
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Benefits
Some of the benefits of using Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks include:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics
users who are currently using the solution.
PeerSpot user Partha D., Global Network Tech Lead at a computer software company, speaks about his experience using the product, saying, "It protects all app traffic so that users can gain access to all apps. Unlike other solutions that only work from ports 80 and 443, which are predominantly for web traffic, Prisma Access covers all protocols and works on all traffic patterns... The most sophisticated attacks can arise from sources that are not behind 80/443."
Tejas J., a Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a computer software company, mentions that "it is geographically dispersed, and it sits on top of Google and AWS platforms. Therefore, you don't face the standard issues, such as latency or bandwidth issues, that you usually face in the case of on-prem data centers.”
Another PeerSpot reviewer, Max I., Associate Director at Cognizant, comments that "Security is absolutely spot-on, really top-notch. It's the result of all the components that come together, such as the HIP [Host Information Profile] and components like Forcepoint, providing end-user content inspection, and antivirus. It incorporates DLP features and that's fantastic because Prisma Access makes sure that all of the essential prerequisites are in place before a user can log in or can be tunneled into."
We monitor all Secure Web Gateways (SWG) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
