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Docker on CentOS vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.3
CentOS with Docker enhances cost-efficiency and time savings, offering up to 50% financial returns over traditional VMs.
Sentiment score
5.7
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition enhances performance and reduces costs by improving application uptime, security, and operational efficiency.
I could say it is maybe forty percent compared to before using Docker.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
I have not seen a return on investment because the deprecation made it so there was none, and if anything, the ROI would have been negative since money and time were spent using something that did not progress.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
After switching to Docker on CentOS from VMs, I have seen a return on investment, saving 40 to 50 percent of our money as well.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Overall, I can say the ROI includes a twenty-five to thirty percent cost reduction, with some areas achieving forty percent cost reduction in our expenses.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is a significant performance improvement in the website and website speed.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have not faced any RMAs, which has made a positive operational impact.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.8
Extensive resources and community support minimize the need for direct Docker on CentOS customer service and support.
Sentiment score
6.5
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition support is effective and knowledgeable, though off-hour delays and access issues occasionally occur.
We purchase the software and product from them, so when I have an issue with Red Hat or Docker on CentOS or Kubernetes, I create a ticket with the partner who works directly with the respective teams.
Solution engineer at Vijatech
Most things can be easily found as resources online to help resolve those issues.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
Docker has lots of documentation and community support.
Senior DeevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the customer support on a scale of one to ten as a perfect ten based on all of the experience I have had so far.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
I rate customer support a 10 out of 10, as they are knowledgeable and provide straightforward troubleshooting.
Network Engineer at Thryv
Customer support for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is excellent.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.3
Docker on CentOS offers good scalability with robust hardware, but deprecated status raises concerns about future support.
Sentiment score
6.7
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers scalable, flexible resource expansion, supporting high availability and adaptability for increased traffic and demand.
if we need more resources, we can just spin up a new Docker image, so scalability is good.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
If you have good hardware, you can scale Docker on CentOS as required.
Azure Dev Ops Engineer at a engineering company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Docker on CentOS is scalable; I can build virtual machines, EC2 instances, and scale from zero to however many I want.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is the most scalable and reliable system.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Within ten minutes of time, we can scale and boot as many virtual machines as needed in the environment.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Being a virtual edition, we were able to scale resources such as CPU, memory, and throughput based on our demand without major architectural changes.
Network Security Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Docker on CentOS is stable but faces strategic challenges due to CentOS lifecycle changes and competition from Kubernetes.
Sentiment score
8.4
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is highly stable, offering strong performance and security, with minimal downtime apart from updates.
Docker on CentOS is not stable anymore because it is not actively being maintained.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Docker on CentOS is quite stable.
Solution engineer at Vijatech
Docker on CentOS is stable, but as I mentioned, there are some improvements needed.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
The load balancing module still performed admirably.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
The performance increased significantly and the response times of the application improved.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The uptime improvements with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition are almost close to 100%, as it only goes down if a failover happens.
Sr. Consutant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users want better documentation, security, and OS integration for Docker on CentOS, addressing compatibility and stability issues.
F5 BIG-IP VE requires interface upgrades, better microservices support, improved logging, clearer licensing, easier upgrades, and enhanced Azure integration.
To achieve a higher rating of 9 or 10, they might need more automation features.
Solution engineer at Vijatech
The metrics of the containers in Docker on CentOS can also be improved, along with the monitoring part which needs enhancement.
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The main issue comes from running out of space; that is when crashes happen.
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
The primary concern I noted regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is its scalability during high-load situations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With FortiWeb, we have a dashboard where I can check the policy status with just one click, and everything is easily accessible.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
 

Setup Cost

Docker on CentOS is cost-effective, requiring simple setup but needing skilled manpower, with concerns about support and security.
Enterprise users appreciate F5 BIG-IP VE's ROI and scalability, but licensing costs and pricing transparency remain concerns.
there is no licensing cost required.
Senior DeevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
There is no licensing in Docker on CentOS.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was all good; cost was never an issue.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's pricing structure was significantly more advantageous and aligned with our budgetary considerations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing and setup costs for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition was mixed, as they do not have an option for 10 gig licensing, which was costly for us.
Analyst at Accenture
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition solves a very significant problem of high availability and performance.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
 

Valuable Features

Docker on CentOS offers volume mount, portability, and fast deployment, enhancing productivity and efficient resource utilization for scalable applications.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition boosts user experience and efficiency with load balancing, security features, high availability, and cost reduction.
It also ensures a consistent environment where applications will work on every machine, not just the developer's machine, and offers resource efficiency, such as no full OS per application, allowing me to share my infrastructure with multiple containers and applications.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Docker on CentOS has positively impacted my organization by making testing easier. I do not have to install older versions of applications and then make my system or service study.
Senior DeevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The benefits are significant as it is easy to operate and maintain, making it more flexible.
Solution engineer at Vijatech
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition helped our customers increase the high availability and performance of their applications, specifically their web applications.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
If ten thousand, fifty thousand, or even a million people want to access the application simultaneously, we have configured auto-scalability.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has impacted my organization positively with cost savings by saving public IP addresses, and its performance and stability, which give almost 100% uptime for the application because we have high availability.
Sr. Consutant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Docker on CentOS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Operating Systems (OS) for Business (25th)
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Docker on CentOS and F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Docker on CentOS is designed for Operating Systems (OS) for Business and holds a mindshare of 0.3%, up 0.0% compared to last year.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, on the other hand, focuses on Application Delivery Controllers (ADC), holds 1.3% mindshare.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Docker on CentOS0.3%
Rocky Linux8.2%
Ubuntu Linux8.0%
Other83.5%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition1.3%
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)13.0%
NetScaler12.1%
Other73.6%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Boaz Katabazi - PeerSpot reviewer
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
Container orchestration has improved performance and resource use but exposes disk space issues
How fast the application runs is one of the biggest advantages for me in Docker, but on the downside, issues to do with space utilization arise sometimes. Since we implemented it, the system really improved and became responsive very fast. When you have limited space, the system tends to crash from time to time, so you have to ensure that you have enough space at any one point. We are using the orchestration feature in Docker. That was the main motive for having orchestration; it helps better manage the containers. I am comparing Docker on CentOS with the one that is running on Ubuntu, and in terms of scaling up, it is easy to work with when it comes to that. That is the main feature I have been benefiting from. Because it was first, we recently did it on Ubuntu, but initially, it was running on CentOS. We were comparing and seeing which one runs better, but I realized on Ubuntu it is much easier to work with. The lightweight architecture on CentOS affects my resource utilization significantly.
reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud deployment has simplified traffic distribution and now supports flexible multi-zone DR
Regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's improvement areas, the current dashboard is very useful, but I believe the registration process should be simplified in the virtual edition. Especially in the Azure environment, many features are not currently aligned and working with Azure. We need to make efforts to ensure it is well integrated with Azure. Currently, if we want to integrate route tables with the virtual F5 edition, we need to deploy scripting inside the virtual F5 instances, and then that script performs the virtual IP route table changes in the Azure environment. This feature should be auto-configured, and efforts are needed to ensure the virtual edition is very much aligned with the Azure environment. I am expecting this improvement in the next edition. The failover capability is also not as good as it should be. We have tested the failover functionality, and sometimes we have observed that failover fails. F5 does not successfully fail over to other instances perfectly, so that also needs to be improved. Security should also be enhanced, as in the past I have seen some security loopholes. Tightening of security should be included in the new software. These improvements should be present in near future editions.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
42%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker on CentOS?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that there is no licensing in Docker on CentOS, and the setup is easy; we just need to create the images for our application, so it is easy.
What needs improvement with Docker on CentOS?
Crashes are the main issue I see. I have not really noted down specific metrics, but I realize that when it comes to disk space utilization, it really goes up so fast. We are not using a CI/CD pipe...
What is your primary use case for Docker on CentOS?
We have servers running operating systems like Ubuntu and CentOS. Regarding Ubuntu, we are interested in LAMP stack, Ubuntu, or Jenkins on hardened Ubuntu, but we are not using LAMP stack. We are u...
What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
Improvements for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could include a more straightforward process for major updates where we could pre-schedule upgrades to avoid downtime.
What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition did not impact anything positively, as during core network activities, backend servers stopped responding due to being legacy servers, which may create issues. F5 BIG-IP V...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Rocky Linux, Canonical and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business. Updated: May 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.