F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Symantec SiteMinder

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

We currently are working to set up Single Sign On and auto provisioning with a new vendor. Symantec SiteMinder visualizes things like SAML responses and assertion attributes within the console extremely clearly. This makes making adjustments on the Vendor's side or even working with Vendor support clear and effective. The only time I would avoid trying use Symantec SiteMinder as a local IDP would be when I am trying to minimize complexity or overhead troubleshooting needs.

Incentivized

• 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

• Federation Services
• Detailed logging for troubleshooting
• Console management is clear and easy to use for less experienced techs

Incentivized

• 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

• Guided tutorials within the console
• Visual connection testing
• Support can be difficult to contact

Incentivized

Integration with F5 BIG-IP systems that we plan to keep using for a while.

Incentivized

If F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager usability is fine it's not hard to use if you read the documentation but it does feel dated and could use a responsive design update to modernize user interface to current standards.

Incentivized

6.5 Symantec SiteMinder's usability is high but the barrier to entry can be intimidating for an unfamiliar user. Symantec SiteMinder support can be difficult to get a hold of when needed leading to situations where you're not sure how to proceed. Overall, if you have experience with SSO, federations, SAML, and IDP's, then you will be fine

Incentivized

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

We use Microsoft Windows Azure AD which can act similarly in comparison to Symantec SiteMinder. While this experience is somewhat narrow, Symantec SiteMinder seems to have more flexability/customization and caters to the crown that prefers to automate and work with linux. I am less familiar with Azure's automated abilities, however, Symantec SiteMinder allows to automate various factors that already line up with our existing Linux environment and setup

Incentivized

• Simplified our approach to company-wide VPN solutions greatly by allowing us to use a single product instead of multiple products like we had before
• Can handle 15000-20000 users at once with no issues
• Was able to configure to support users travelling with 4G connections on their laptops and accommodate constant changing IP addresses

Incentivized

• Extremely flexible/customizable partnership federations
• Consolidation of SSO settings in one place
• Requires more knowledge and therefore more time training

Incentivized