F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway are leaders in the application delivery controller market. F5 BIG-IP offers superior hardware performance and versatility, whereas Azure Application Gateway benefits from cloud-native scalability and seamless Azure integration.
Features: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager provides robust load balancing, SSL offloading, and advanced traffic control via iRules, allowing for extensive customization in complex environments. Its hardware is renowned for performance in high-demand settings. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway excels in integrating with Azure services, offering easy traffic management and strong Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities. Its cloud-native design enhances scaling effectiveness, crucial for dynamic deployments.
Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP LTM is noted for its high cost and complex licensing, which can deter smaller or budget-conscious organizations. Users suggest improved role customization, reporting, and interface enhancements. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway lacks flexibility in configurations and could benefit from enhanced documentation and third-party tool integration. Users desire more advanced security features beyond current provisions.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP LTM, primarily for on-premises and hybrid setups, garners praise for customer service but faces criticism for complex deployments. Azure Application Gateway's cloud-based model is easier to deploy in public and hybrid clouds, supported by Microsoft's comprehensive yet occasionally criticized support service for slower response times.
Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP LTM is perceived as expensive with a complicated licensing model. Its performance often justifies the cost through substantial ROI in security and efficiency. In contrast, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway offers a competitive pay-per-use model in the cloud. While some argue Azure's costs are high, the integration and uptime benefits provide significant value.
The major return on investment is the security of our data.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway significantly impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance.
We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.
I would rate the technical support of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) nine out of ten.
There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a very scalable product.
In future releases of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would like to see more AI functionalities and a better dashboard as well as some customizations.
There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.
The product is costly.
Azure solutions are quite expensive.
When it comes to pricing for Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it a seven out of ten.
One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication.
We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats.
F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.
BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.
Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.
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