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F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall) vs. IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AF5 Distributed Cloud WAF leverages F5's Advanced WAF technology, delivering WAF-as-a-Service and combining signature- and behavior-based protection for web applications. It acts as an intermediate proxy to inspect application requests and responses to block and mitigate a broad spectrum of risks stemming from the OW ASP Top 10, persistent and coordinated threat campaigns, bots, and layer 7 DoS.N/A

    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC

    Score6.1 out of 10
    N/AIBM Cloud Virtual Servers are customizable, public or private, cloud-based servers available from IBM. User can launch applications and software across blended, hybrid environments as the servers integrate with all cloud models.

    $0.01

    per hour

    Pricing
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)
    starting at $0.22
    per hour
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)
    starting at $149.00
    per month
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)
    starting at $0.038
    per hour
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)
    starting at $25.21
    per month
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)
    starting at $0.02
    per hour
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)
    starting at $13.27
    per month
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (transient)
    starting at $0.01
    per hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details—IBM Cloud virtual servers include 250 GB of outbound public bandwidth, unmetered inbound public bandwidth, and unmetered private and management network bandwidth.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Considered Both Products
    F5
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    178 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    158 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    174 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    129 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    142 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall) and IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Feature
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    7.2
    88 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings9.181 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling00 Ratings9.176 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.664 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates00 Ratings3.072 Ratings
    Monitoring tools00 Ratings7.384 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings4.777 Ratings
    Operating system support00 Ratings6.984 Ratings
    Security controls00 Ratings9.178 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
    Score9.4 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
    Score9.4 out of 10
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (180 ratings)
    8.2
    (88 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.7
    (11 ratings)
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    8.1
    (5 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall)IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
    Likelihood to Recommend
    F5
    It is doing its job effectively, and its scalability is superb. So, if you have a mixed environment with cloud and on-premise systems to protect this product, provide a solution to the challenge. However, its management is more suited to DevOps teams rather than to the ones responsible for on-premise systems, making the management a bit more complex.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    One scenario that immediately came to my mind was large-scale data processing, IBM Cloud Virtual Servers is well-suited for organizations that require high-performance computing capabilities, particularly when processing large amounts of data. It can also be useful for companies or organizations that wish to migrate their workplace to the cloud and it may suite companies that have strict compliance requirements since the servers have robust security features.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    F5
    • Layer seven attacks are becoming far more common. Traditionally it was always layered three, layer four, where you get an additional firewall, but with the application layer attacks become more frequent, more popular, et cetera. So having the web application firewall protecting us, and then with the recent Log4j, that's the most recent use case when it gave us that instant level of protection whilst we remediated the Log4j that we had that and the F5 Distributed Cloud WAF was protecting us.
    • I have a great relationship with the account manager, my account manager, and I think he drives the best price possible, um, for me, and I'm happy with that price.
    • F5 Distributed Cloud WAF is always innovating and evolving.
    • We run a very competitive proof value where we run numerous competitors against each other, and then we evaluate from that and then make the selection, and F5 Distributed Cloud WAF was the winner.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Scalability: IBM Cloud Virtual Servers enable businesses to simply and quickly scale up or down the resources they require in response to changing business demands. This enables firms to respond to traffic spikes, requests for new services, or changes in business size without the need for additional hardware purchases or maintenance.
    • Cost savings: By employing virtual servers in the cloud, enterprises can decrease capital expenditures for hardware and infrastructure while also lowering ongoing operational expenses by removing server maintenance and management costs. This can result in significant cost savings for enterprises, particularly those that need to raise or decrease their computer capacity fast and easily.
    • High availability: IBM Cloud Virtual Servers is built with high availability in mind, giving enterprises the certainty that their applications and data will be available and accessible even if hardware fails or other disruptions occur. This assists enterprises in maintaining business continuity and lowering the chance of downtime, which is crucial for firms that rely on 24/7 access to their systems. Furthermore, IBM's comprehensive network and security features aid in the prevention of data breaches and other security risks, assuring the availability and reliability of their applications and data.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    F5
    • Lack of warnings, currently the console does not provide a warning when deleting key-value entry.
    • The web GUI could use some tweaking, currently no undo option when removing exclusion rules.
    • Configuration complexity, currently menus and options are hidden, making it hard to configure vs on prem.
    Read full review
    IBM
    • It would also be nice if there were more templates to choose from when creating a server. Right now there are only a few options, and we'd like to see more variety.
    • We'd like to see the ability to create server groups. This would make it easier to manage a large number of servers since we could do all of the updates and management tasks for them at once.
    • There doesn't seem to be a way to automatically install updates on all of the virtual servers. We have to go in and manually update each one, which can be time-consuming. It would be really nice if automatic updates can be done.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    F5
    We gave it an 8 because it protects our web apps well and is reliable. The WAF is flexible and meets most of our needs. It could improve in user interface and make integrations easier, but overall, it’s a solid and effective security tool for us.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    It has a flexible and affordable pricing, easy to configure and manage. It is easy to spawn one or multiple instances and have them up and running in no time
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    F5
    I believe is a solution that was designed from the start to be simple and easy to use. Coming from Imperva, it simply eased the burden and complexity of managing and securing our apps on different environments (cloud and on-prem). It easy to scale and very quick to deploy (as a cloud waf should be), provide us with DevOps integrations, visibility and automatic insights from multiple events that guarantee peace of mind for us analysts and opp managers.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    F5
    Seems no issue
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    Always available when you need an instance.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    F5
    Unnoticed slowness
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    Most of the instances work on hypervisors with good processors, but not all of them.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    F5
    I never contacted support for this product.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    It is adequate, but you need to be ready to argue your point - which is fair enough, I suppose, but being given the opposite of the benefit of the doubt every time does not necessarily result in an enjoyable user experience.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    F5
    Online training saves me lots of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    F5
    Just make sure you origin servers have F5 IPs allowed.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    We did not use IBM professional services to implement IBM Cloud Virtual Servers.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    F5
    The other one that I've used in the past, they're very similar and I haven't used it recently, so I can't do a side-by-side comparison today. But I can say that F5 does everything we want it to do consistent with what this other product did do and it's got enhanced features and of course we have a long history with F5 as a product set in general.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    IBM Cloud Virtual Servers offer more customization options than Amazon EC2, with the ability to select from a range of operating systems, storage types, and network configurations. IBM also provides a wide range of tools and services to help manage and optimize your virtual servers, including a web-based console, CLI, and API.

    AWS EC2 is a more managed platform, with a focus on providing a simple and easy-to-use interface. Amazon provides a range of predefined instance types, each with different specs and pricing, to make it easy to find the right option for your needs. AWS also offers a number of management and monitoring tools, but these are often more basic than what is available from IBM.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    F5
    Dont see any issue so far
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    It worked well for us in the beginning, it works well for us when we have more instances.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    F5
    • The biggest gain for us was speed. Before F5 Distributed Cloud WAF, onboarding a new app to our WAF stack meant manual rule tuning, traffic sampling and regression testing. Right now, we spin up a service, tag it with the right policy and its ready (production ready) within hours
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • Supports businesses who want compute power on demand (instances are ready within minutes).
    • It can give you access to a 32-core CPU at $0.29 for short running or interruptible processes - enabling cost-efficient number crunching.
    • Given me a taste of the powers of remote compute power for compilation and development.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    F5 Distributed Cloud WAF (Web Application Firewall) Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshot