F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs IBM Security Verify Access comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and IBM Security Verify Access based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Access Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. IBM Security Verify Access Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The load balancing features are valuable.""We have seen a return on investment from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager. It provided access at a time when we didn't have it.""In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work.""The tool is reliable and easy to configure.""The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature.""Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product.""This is a product that is easy to install and integrate, and it is simple to use.""The performance of the solution is valuable."

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"It's a good solution for identification and access management.""Its stability and UI are most valuable.""I have found this solution to be really practical and when a user wants to log in, it is effortless and runs smooth.""The most valuable feature of IBM Security Access Manager, at least for my company, is multi-factor authentication. That's the only feature my company is using. The solution works well and has no glitches. IBM Security Access Manager is a very good solution, so my company is still using it.""The solution has powerful authentification and authorization. It offers a good way to increase security.""From the integration point of view, it supports SAML, OIDC, and OAuth. For legacy applications that don't have support for SAML and other new protocols, it provides single sign-on access to end-users. From the integration compatibility point of view, it is highly capable.""The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via email or SMS. This ensures secure access to your accounts by providing multiple authentication options."

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Cons
"The price of this product can be improved.""The solution is quite costly.""Integrating identity providers and single sign-on solutions can simplify user authentication and access control.""I'd suggest improved documentation integration directly within the GUI. Right now, finding comprehensive documentation often requires going to external websites like the community portal.""We do not have knowledgeable support teams locally.""In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side.""The technical support’s response time must be improved.""The initial setup was complex."

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"The solution could be classified as a hilt system. There are a lot of resources being used and it is suitable for very large enterprises or the public sector.""What we'd like improved in IBM Security Access Manager is its onboarding process as it's complex, particularly when onboarding new applications. We need to be very, very careful during the onboarding. We have no issues with IBM Security Access Manager because the solution works fine, apart from the onboarding process and IBM's involvement in onboarding issues. If we need support related to the onboarding, we've noticed a pattern where support isn't available, or they don't have much experience, or we're not getting a response from them. We're facing the same issue with IBM Guardium. As we're just focusing on the multi-factor authentication feature of IBM Security Access Manager and we didn't explore any other features, we don't have additional features to suggest for the next release of the solution, but we're in discussion about exploring ID management and access management features, but those are just possibilities because right now, we're focused on exploring our domain.""There are a lot of areas that can be improved, but the main area is the lack of customization. You cannot easily customize anything in the product. It is not easy to tweak the functionality. It is challenging to change the out-of-the-box functionality.""The user interface needs to be simplified, it's complex and not user-friendly.""Configuration could be simplified for the end-user.""They can improve the single sign-on configuration for OIDC and OAuth. That is not very mature in this product, and they can improve it in this particular area. OIDC is a third-party integration that we do with the cloud platforms, and OAuth is an authorization mechanism for allowing a user having an account with Google or any other provider to access an application. Organizations these days are looking for just-in-time provisioning use cases, but IBM Security Access Manager is not very mature for such use cases. There are only a few applications that can be integrated, and this is where this product is lagging. However, in terms of configuration and single sign-on mechanisms, it is a great product.""The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Recently, they have simplified the licensing"
  • "The product is very expensive."
  • "The tool is a little bit expensive."
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  • "The license and costs depend on the amount range of users you have. For just approximately 2,000 users, the price is practical and fair. However, when you have 20,000 users, it starts to become really expensive, and the discount per user is not attractive enough to go ahead and purchase."
  • "It costs about 300K AED for a year. Its pricing is a bit on the higher end, but in comparison to other products in the market, its price is still better. There are lots of other products that are very costly."
  • "The product is not expensive. It depends on the number of users."
  • More IBM Security Verify Access Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature.
    Top Answer:The tool is a little bit expensive. I rate the pricing a six out of ten.
    Top Answer:In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side. Feature-wise, sometimes when I log in to the GUI and want to see the… more »
    Top Answer:The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via email… more »
    Top Answer:The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial.
    Top Answer:Currently, we're using IBM Security Access Manager for multi-factor authentication.
    Ranking
    9th
    out of 37 in Access Management
    Views
    1,356
    Comparisons
    1,117
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    348
    Rating
    8.1
    10th
    out of 37 in Access Management
    Views
    1,860
    Comparisons
    1,207
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    607
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    F5 Access Policy Manager
    IBM Security Verify Access (SVA), IBM Security Access Manager, ISAM
    Learn More
    IBM
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    Overview

    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access. 

    BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.

    BIG-IP APM Benefits:

    • Ease of use
    • Flexibility
    • Ability to integrate with other systems
    • Security features
    • Granular access control
    • Responsive and helpful support team

    BIG-IP APM Features:

    • Support for Identity Aware Proxy (IAP) enabling Zero Trust application access
    • Context-based authorization with dynamic L4/L7 ACLs
    • Integration with third-party MFA solutions
    • DTLS 2.0 mode for delivering and securing applications
    • SAML 2.0 identity federation support
    • Support for OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol
    • SSO support for classic authentication (Kerberos, header- based, etc.), credential caching, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0, and FIDO2 (U2F)
    • AAA server authentication and high-availability
    • Integration with leading IAM vendor products (Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity)
    • BIG IP Edge Client and F5 Access integrate with VMware Horizon ONE (AirWatch), Microsoft Intune and IBM MaaS360
    • Risk-based access leveraging third-party UEBA and risk engines (HTTP Connector)

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.

    Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."

    Clyde LivingstonSenior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."

    Chris LamSenior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.

    IBM Security Verify Access is a complete authorization and network security policy management solution. It provides end-to-end protection of resources over geographically dispersed intranets and extranets.Provides a wide range of built-in authenticators and supports external authenticators.Provides permit and deny decisions for protected resources requests in the secure domain through the authorization API.Manages secure access to private internal network-based resources by using the public Internet's broad connectivity and ease of use with a corporate firewall system.

    Sample Customers
    City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
    POST Luxembourg
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider27%
    Media Company18%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm26%
    Insurance Company17%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Government8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business46%
    Large Enterprise54%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise69%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business12%
    Midsize Enterprise6%
    Large Enterprise82%
    Buyer's Guide
    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. IBM Security Verify Access
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. IBM Security Verify Access and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is ranked 9th in Access Management with 13 reviews while IBM Security Verify Access is ranked 10th in Access Management with 7 reviews. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is rated 8.2, while IBM Security Verify Access is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) writes " Facilitates packet inspection, modification, and offloading and offers visibility and troubleshooting capabilities, allowing for pre-production server testing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM Security Verify Access writes "Supports on-prem and cloud environments, has good integration capabilities, and is easy to adopt". F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is most compared with Citrix Gateway, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine), Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Check Point Remote Access VPN, whereas IBM Security Verify Access is most compared with Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity, ForgeRock, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and PingID. See our F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. IBM Security Verify Access report.

    See our list of best Access Management vendors.

    We monitor all Access Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.