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F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/AF5 Networks provides BIG-IP Access Policy Manager as an identity and access solution which can be deployed as a standalone solution or as an add-on to F5 Networks' flagship BIG-IP TLM or F5 Advanced WAF applications.N/A

    Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Defender for Cloud Apps (formerly Microsoft Cloud App Security) is a multimode cloud access security broker.N/A
    Pricing
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Considered Both Products
    F5
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    24 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    18 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    Features
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Virtual Private Network
    Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Feature
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
    7.4
    13 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    -
    Ratings
    AES 256-bit Encryption8.29 Ratings00 Ratings
    Kill Switch7.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Platform Support7.59 Ratings00 Ratings
    Split Tunneling7.95 Ratings00 Ratings
    IP Address Masking6.97 Ratings00 Ratings
    No-Logs Policy5.67 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Locations7.28 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automatic Wi-Fi Protection7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Simultaneous Connections7.211 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Support Services7.710 Ratings00 Ratings
    User Ratings
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (25 ratings)
    8.1
    (12 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (14 ratings)
    8.7
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    F5
    I think that the platform is well suited to many Remote Access VPN solutions, but I also think there is a lot of room for improvement on the backend. If you are hoping to deploy your APM solution across many different datacenters or colos, it may not be the best choice for the final solution.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is well suited when working with other Microsoft Applications. For example, if you are working with Microsoft Office 365 it works very well when implementing CASB features. It works when implementing monitoring or blocks on Sanctioned applications however customizing the message to users is not that great.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    F5
    • SAML 2.0 identity federation support.
    • Integrates with third-party SSO solutions.
    • Bridging modern authentication and authorization (SAML, OAuth/OIDC) and classic authentication and authorization methods.
    • Policy routing
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • The integration to Microsoft Entra ID is seamless, which allows Conditional Access to redirect the session to Microsoft Defender for Cloud App for it to take actions (Block or Monitor).
    • Tracker users' activity is very good when troubleshooting or running an investigate.
    • Detecting risky users through tight integration with Microsoft Entra ID is a very good feature.
    • Detecting mass downloads and blocking the download of files from non-manage company devices is a very good feature as well.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    F5
    • There's some more advanced configurations within OAuth that I think could be fleshed out and easier to approach.
    • There's a lot of things in F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager policies that I find myself recreating every policy. An easier way to copy objects from one to policy to another.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • It takes some time to scan and apply the policies when there is some sensitive information.
    • After it applies the policies, it works, but there is a delay.
    • It doesn't provide any way to scan Microsoft Teams when an external exchange of images is happening. You can always do the filtering on the documents during the chat, but if there is an image, then some kind of OCR capability is required to detect it. At present, there is no way [Microsoft Cloud App Security] can go and detect those kinds of images and alert us
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    F5
    Integration with F5 BIG-IP systems that we plan to keep using for a while.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    F5
    Once things are set up, it is nice and easy to get the Edge Client running on user's PCs. However, that setup process can be a bit daunting at first using the Policy Manager, and reviewing session logs can be difficult at first if you aren't 100% sure of what you're looking for.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    The interface is pretty simple and easy to use; however, you will need to do a lot of investigative research on your own to get comfortable with it. Originally, many of the Microsoft security tools had their own seperate consoles. Overtime, they have blended into one interface which is the ideal state. In some cases it is clear Microsoft had to pick which console a certain feature or setting was going to reside in and this leads to some confusion. For example, DLP is managed through Defender for Cloud Apps but you will also need to jump into Purview. For things like reverse proxy on your M365 tenant, you will need to go into Azure and setup conditional access rules. Not a big problem and I can understand why the settings are located where they are but for someone just starting out with Defender for Cloud Apps, it will take some time to figure out.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I have not utilized actual support but the Sales and Product teams have been super helpful in moving our implementation forward and showing us the best practices.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    F5
    It is open platform so support is not good and than F5 and features visibility as not good as F5. F5 Set up and easy to use to admin console. Also have more feature visibility for load balancing, web server accelerator, application server ddos protection and WAF. F5 more efficient to handle concurrent request.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    More flexible and more features with easy integration with cloud services like Microsoft Azure and other cloud services. Overall both gives similar features but we prefer Microsoft cloud app security due to its high threat detection rate. mostly we have been able to stop the threat in very very less time.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    F5
    • Single sign on is great for students and faculty and staff
    • Users don't have to log in multiple times
    • Users don't need to remember multiple login IDs and passwords
    • Multi Domain SSO support bridges many internal and external facing products with single sign on
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Cloud App Security saves us thousands of dollars finding and rectifying apps security issues
    • Identity Security Posture helps the organization identity stay in shape, saving thousands of dollars on security consultations
    • The cost of suffering a breach cannot be quantified, CAS helps minimize the chances of the attackers succeeding, with excellent historical logging for most operations
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots