F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NGINX App Protect comparison

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.

NGINX App Protect application security solution combines the efficacy of advanced F5 web application firewall (WAF) technology with the agility and performance of NGINX Plus. The solution runs natively on NGINX Plus and addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing modern DevOps environments:

• Integrating security controls directly into the development automation pipeline
• Applying and managing security for modern and distributed application environments such as containers and microservices
• Providing the right level of security controls without impacting release and go-to-market velocity
• Complying with security and regulatory requirements

NGINX App Protect offers:

• Expanded security beyond basic signatures to ensure adequate controls
• F5 app‑security technology for efficacy superior to ModSecurity and other WAFs
• Confidently run in “blocking” mode in production with proven F5 expertise
• High‑confidence signatures for extremely low false positives
• Increases visibility, integrating with third‑party analytics solutions
• Integrates security and WAF natively into the CI/CD pipeline
• Deploys as a lightweight software package that is agnostic of underlying infrastructure
• Facilitates declarative policies for “security as code” and integration with DevOps tools
• Decreases developer burden and provides feedback loop for quick security remediation
• Accelerates time to market and reduces costs with DevSecOps‑automated security