F5 Advanced WAF Reviews

I use F5 Advanced WAF to secure web applications and load balance for connectivity.

F5 Advanced WAF secures our connectivity and combines both the main functions of WAF (balancing and web application security).

F5 Advanced WAF's best feature is that it's a combination of LTM and ASM in one license.

It's sometimes difficult to customize APIs with F5 Advanced WAF, which could be made easier.

I've been using F5 Advanced WAF for three-and-a-half years.

F5 Advanced WAF is stable.

I previously used FortiWeb, but after comparison, I preferred F5.

The initial setup was moderate, and I would rate my experience as four out of five. Deployment took a month because we had to put it in learning mode, customize policies, and get the security signature.

We used a third-party team.

A yearly license for F5 Advanced WAF is expensive. I would rate the pricing at two out of five.

I would give F5 Advanced WAF a rating of nine out of ten.

We have several websites that are exposed to external users. We have a website for interaction with supply chain customers. We also have a website that gives access to CRM functionality to allow our customers to open tickets and disputes. F5 WAF is at the front for security and attack mitigation. It ensures that users are able to access only allowed pages.

The web application firewall itself is most valuable. It provides positive security and negative security. In negative security, it blocks a task such as cross-site scripting, code injection, etc. In positive security, it lets you specify and enforce things, such as the parameters allowed in username and password fields and the number of characters allowed in a field.

It also has antivirus and DDoS mitigation capabilities. We have enabled these features. 

It is also quite intuitive and user-friendly. They have several webinars that are actually like labs. You can use these webinars to learn about how to use all features of the product.

Its price should be better. It is expensive.

In general, it is stable and reliable. Over the past few months, several vulnerabilities were found in the product, but which product doesn't have vulnerabilities? The main question is how fast do you get the fix for it, and they provided the fix quite quickly. We had to upgrade it as soon as possible to mitigate the risks.

I didn't try to expand it. We have two staff members who are using F5 Advanced WAF.

In terms of its usage, we are deploying it on all points through which we are exposing services, but we are currently not exposing too many services.

I had only one case for which I had to call tech support. It wasn't a straightforward ticket. It was quite a challenging ticket. Eventually, they found a solution, but it took some time. It was challenging to find the bug in one of the previous versions. They also didn't know about it. We did the troubleshooting together until we found the problem.

We were using another solution before switching to F5 Advanced WAF. We didn't have success with that solution because the integrator failed to deploy it properly. It was more complex and not user-friendly.

It was a little bit complex. If you want to add an additional layer or model like APM with two-factor authentication, then it requires a little bit more integration.

It is expensive. Its price should be better.

Its licensing is on a yearly basis. Its licensing is also based on the model. There are no additional costs.

I would recommend this solution to other users. I will advise others to learn a little bit about how the HTTP protocol works. They should be familiar with the functionality of the product. They should not use it without understanding what they are actually doing.

I would rate F5 Advanced WAF a nine out of ten.

We host public-facing web applications or APIs. There are web applications that are owned by the company that is exposed to the outside. The internal infrastructure is within the premise. We use F5 to protect them. It's an HA model, and we have two sites.

We need to have an extra layer of protection. We were previously exposed to the public API. The deployment and the rate of deploying web-based applications had increased. After we introduced the web application firewall, it increased our ability to expose more of the services to the public. 

My favorite feature of F5 is the ability to play around with the ciphers. I also like the ability to have an immediate display of the support IDs when a real blockage occurs. The protection offered is great.

The reporting portion of F5 Advance WAF is not great. They need to work out something better, as it is very basic. You only see the top IPs, I think there is more they can offer.

I have been using F5 Advanced WAF for four years, since 2018.

F5 Advanced WAF is a stable solution.

For the initial deployment, from what we were planning to implement, it was scalable. 

We now have other requirements that we need to engage with. They believe we need to increase our license, so we can accommodate more features.

There have been issues in the availability of quick support. For general issues there is no concern. The issue is when you need support right away, but it is not available.

Positive

The solution was deployed using network security. At the time of deployment, the appliance was there, but we did not have any person that was able to accomplish the deployment. It took six months to deploy.

We have definitely seen a ROI by using F5 Advanced WAF.

As far as the pricing of F5 Advanced WAF I would rate it a four out of five depending on what features I am looking for. Imperva is more expensive.

The price has remained consistent at a constant rate. There have not been any increases or any unforeseen increases when we're renewing our license. The price is fixed.

I reviewed Imperva only to compare pricing.

On the initial engagement, you should try to look on how best you can accommodate the quick support features, as this was a big struggle for us.

Overall, I would rate F5 Advanced WAF an eight out of ten.

It is used for application security and load balancing. As we have a few customers who are using banking applications, and stock market applications, they are more concerned about security and how to protect the product and their business applications. And that's why we offer security applications. Besides that, there are new features for load balancing in the F5.

Customers find the load balancer feature as the most valuable.

The tool needs to improve its pricing. 

I have been using it for two years.

It is a very stable product. It is the favourite product of banking customers in Egypt.

It is a very scalable product. You can write down any iRule you want as it is very convenient.

We used Citrix ADC, Fortinet FortiWeb, and Barracuda before F5 Advanced WAF. We switched to F5 Advanced WAF due to its efficiency and the port lockdown feature that the customers in Egypt like. Also since it's certified by Gartner, the customers feel confident using it.

The initial setup was simple.

If you are looking for a really good product, you should consider F5 Advanced WAF.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

We use the solution for load balancing.

They should improve the capability, and then they should work on the virtualization of NGINX. Currently, most environments are virtualized. F5 Advanced WAF will not be able to protect it.

I have been using F5 Advanced WAF as a reseller for 5 years.

Technical support is good but not enough. It takes a lot of time to get support.

Neutral

The initial setup is not so easy nor not so complex. There is a learning phase, and there are policies to apply. It complies with regulations. Recently, we used it for Formula One, and it proved very effective.

ROI is covered in one year. You can see how it protects and mitigates damages in the network.

The product is not so expensive. It depends on the assets.

There are other solutions for data loss prevention, such as Symantec and IP solutions. There are options available for DNS blocking. While these solutions may specialize in certain aspects, They offer comprehensive coverage across various areas. Each vendor specializes in different aspects, but F5 Advanced WAF excels in its particular domain.

I recommend the solution. Most of the environment is going to virtualization.

Overall, I rate the solution an 8 out of 10.

We are using F5 Advanced WAF for the applications that we are publishing mainly for intrusion prevention and proxy features.

The most valuable features of F5 Advanced WAF are the overall capabilities, there is not a comparable solution on the market.

F5 Advanced WAF could improve the reporting. It's a bit difficult to populate, them. If you're not so familiar with the functions, such as where to find the logs and other settings.

In a future release, it would be beneficial to have a DNS boost feature.

I have been using F5 Advanced WAF for approximately five years.

I rate the stability of F5 Advanced WAF a ten out of ten.

We have approximately 300 users using this solution in my organization.

I rate the scalability of F5 Advanced WAF a nine out of ten.

I was previously using NGINX App Protect and we switched to F5 Advanced WAF because the GUI was better.

The full implementation of the solution took approximately eight hours. There are sections of the configuration at can be difficult.

We used a third party to do the implementation.

I rate F5 Advanced WAF an eight out of ten.

For me, the primary use case is to secure web applications from external threats, including cross-site scripting, SQL injection attacks, file inclusion vulnerabilities, and many more. The tool has simplified protection against web applications and recent threats that might be visible. If your applications are vulnerable, it gets protected by F5.

It is a very flexible solution. iRules is quite appealing when it comes to F5, and they apply it throughout their solution. BIG-IP is a known platform, and it is a part of F5 now. Application delivery or web application firewalls, F5 understands these terms and then suggests better data policies. But you have to do the work on your application's performance first. You have to look in the logs and understand the total attack you should prevent when we put it in the circuit protection mode, which works perfectly well.

iRules truly excites me because it has the ability to prevent the end-user and infrastructure from external threats.

Even if the F5’s default signatures and the default behavior are unable to help you, you can customize iRules to reach the objectives.

I don't like the management control of F5.

Moreover, if you are not an expert, it would be really difficult to set it up.

I have been using the product for fifteen years or more.

It is a stable solution.

It is definitely a scalable solution.

The initial setup is quite straightforward. I didn't experience any complexity. It could be difficult for somebody who is not familiar with application load balancers or web applications. It takes a month to understand the entire architecture. It primarily depends upon how great deployment could be.

It usually takes about five to seven days to configure and deploy the F5 Advanced WAF in production mode. It is essential to ensure that your configuration works properly before putting it into production mode.

When you have already designed it, it takes around five to seven days to set up. But it takes more than a month to understand the entire architecture of the F5.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

We are using F5 Advanced WAF to defend against web application attacks.

The most valuable features of the F5 Advanced WAF are the enhanced ASM and the performance. Additionally, the usability and effectiveness are very good.

F5 Advanced WAF could improve on its funding for WAF features. There is a need to be more advanced WAF features.

I have been using F5 Advanced WAF for several years.

My advice to others is F5 Advanced WAF is a powerful WAF for many years in the market, and it has powerful security features.

F5 Advanced WAF is a stable solution.

I have found that F5 Advanced WAF is scalable but there is a limit.

We have hundreds of people using this solution in my organization.

I have not used the support from F5 Advanced WAF.

The initial setup of F5 Advanced WAF is straightforward, but the process is lengthy.

We did the deployment of F5 Advanced WAF in-house. We have a team that's always ready and aligned with the process of maintaining F5 Advanced WAF.

There are different licenses available to use F5 Advanced WAF, such as BT, ASM, and LPM.

I rate the price of F5 Advanced WAF a four out of five.

I rate F5 Advanced WAF an eight out of ten.