F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs WAPPLES comparison

F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

WAPPLES is a virtual web application firewall designed for the cloud consumer. WAPPLES runs on an intelligent logic analysis engine called Contents Classification and Evaluation Processing, or COCEP. This logic analysis engine utilizes a system of 26 'rules' to execute a logical analysis of all types of web traffic to determine whether or not certain traffic constitutes a threat to the web application. If traffic can successfully pass through all 26 rules, WAPPLES determines that the traffic is not an attack, and transports legitimate traffic to the web application. The split-second performance of the COCEP enables WAPPLES to determine if traffic is safe in just 1/1000 of a second.