F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager and Cloudflare One compete in the network security category. Cloudflare One appears to have an edge due to its simplicity, ease of integration in a cloud environment, and competitive pricing.
Features: F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager offers DDoS protection, load balancing, and detailed IP intelligence while integrating with other F5 modules. Cloudflare One provides rate limiting and application-based access, and integrates well within a single cloud management console.
Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP AFM has a complex interface that requires a more intuitive design and automated updates; improvements in its web gateway and geolocation features are also needed. Cloudflare One could enhance its support and troubleshooting interfaces, as well as provide better documentation for deployment while also addressing pricing transparency and comprehensive customer support.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP AFM is typically installed on-premises, offering greater control but demanding more technical expertise, with customer service being positively rated yet varying in response times. Cloudflare One's deployment is easier due to its cloud-based model, although initial configurations may be complex. Users noted occasional challenges with integration and support responsiveness.
Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP AFM is seen as expensive for standalone deployments, but its combined use with other F5 products can justify costs through discounts. Cloudflare One has a lower entry cost with a competitive pricing structure, though some users find it occasionally opaque. Both solutions offer a return on investment when effectively integrated into existing infrastructures.
Cloudflare One is a single-vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform that enables Zero Trust security and any-to-any connectivity across enterprise applications, users, devices, and networks. Cloudflare One helps organizations simplify, modernize, and consolidate their IT architecture by converging security and networking services on our single global network and control plane.
Many organizations start by adopting our Security Service Edge (SSE) services — like ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and DLP — to reduce their attack surface, stop threats like phishing and ransomware, protect data, and apply identity-based Zero Trust verification across web, SaaS, and private app environments. Others prioritize simplifying network connectivity across offices, data centers, and cloud environments with our WANaaS.
Every service is available for customers to run in every location across Cloudflare’s global network, which today spans 330+ cities in 120+ countries, so you can scale connectivity with fast, consistent protections everywhere.
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is a high-performance, full-proxy network security solution designed to protect networks and data centers against incoming threats that enter the network. Built on F5’s industry-leading BIG-IP hardware and software platforms, BIG-IP AFM provides a scalable platform that delivers the flexible performance and control needed to mitigate aggressive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and protocol attacks before they overwhelm and degrade applications and infrastructure availability.
For service providers, BIG-IP AFM IPS does even more, protecting the network edge and performing traffic inspection and protocol adherence for prevalent service provider protocols such as SS7, Diameter, HTTP/2, GTP, SCTP and SIP traffic coming into the network over UDP, TCP, and SCTP.
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