Azure Application Gateway vs BIG-IP

Likelihood to Recommend

The following are the few features that I like the most about Azure Application Gateway:- Easy to use, configure, and implement.- It can be integrated with different tools such as Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS).- Highly scalable

The following are the few features I like the least about this product:- User Documentation can be improved- Dashboard to demonstrate different metrics can be more detailed.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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The BIG-IP is definitely well suited to scale up for demanding and/or complex enterprise traffic management. Although currently, we're only scratching the surface of its capabilities it has not been too complex or difficult to implement and manage. Having said that, I don't know that it would be the best fit for smaller-scale deployments, as it would probably be overkill unless you needed several of the modules they offer. Although we are only using one module, we are making extensive use of it. Similar to products like the Check Point firewall, there are so many options and features available that the limiting factor is more likely to be administrator time or knowledge than the BIP-IP itself. The good thing is there are always more features and options to grow into if needed without having to find additional solutions.

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Paul Luchini

Network Engineer

Kentucky Administrative Office of the CourtsGovernment Administration, 1001-5000 employees

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Pros

Easy integration with Load Balancer and Azure Scale Set to provide a full solution for traffic management.
With rich routing rule, we could use one Application Gateway as the central point for all internal applications to expose to the external network.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Easy connection: you can connect to your corporate network with two clicks.
IP restriction: F5 has a list of possible insecure IP numbers, if someone tries to connect using one of these numbers, F5 BIG-IP won't connect.
Always on feature: Very handy feature, if you install always on, you won't need to click connect.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employees

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Cons

The ease of setting up a connection to the on-premises sql server to any of the Azure cloud data solutions. One can easily stand up new virtual machines and then create a separate Application Gateway to work with each of the Azure solutions like Azure Data factory or Azure Machine Learning.
Also, we can schedule the jobs to be run at a particular time and also on-demand so we would always have the data whenever we will need it.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Occasionally, it fails to connect and gives me very little feedback to help me correct the problem.
The interface is simple, but a bit dated.

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Verified User

Professional in Human Resources

Internet Company, 10,001+ employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

BIG-IP 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Great customization and easy to use help reference menus

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Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP

Senior Network Security Engineer

InsightInformation Technology and Services, 5001-10,000 employees

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Support Rating

Azure Application Gateway 10.0

Based on 2 answers

I don’t like that it's part of the Microsoft brand. In general, I am not a fan of Microsoft products but Azure gets it right.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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BIG-IP 8.2

Based on 7 answers

I was pleasantly surprised by F5 support, with my experience being the best of all the network vendors. I was not speaking to someone across the world, the engineer fully took ownership and followed through to solution without me having to keep calling. The support engineer also was able to resolve an unusual situation, in which most other vendors' engineers would simply give up.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Publishing Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Azure Application Gateway gives you application-level routing and load-balancing services that let you build a scalable and highly-available web front end in Azure.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Netscaler and F5 Big-IP are very similar. I liked the Netscaler GUI a little better, but they both basically serve the same purpose quite well. Both are more advanced than the cheap/free software-based alternatives out there. Both can be clustered to avoid having a single point of failure at the load balancer level. Both can be programmed with custom rules to handle traffic routing.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Entertainment Company, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

We are using Azure Application Gateway as the load balancing tool for our applications deployed on Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) clusters.

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Mounika Chirasani

Software Engineer

JDA SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Less issues with our load balancers means better availability for our clients and less penalties from our SLAs.
Easy for newer network engineers to learn means less time spent training them.

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No