Two F5 applications are available for download on Apple's App Store to allow Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) to establish secure connections to protected resources. Additionally, the BIG-IP Edge Portal and BIG-IP Edge Client applications are available for Android devices. This article briefly compares the BIG-IP Edge Client and the BIG-IP Edge Portal applications.

Note: For more information about the BIG-IP Edge Client, refer to SOL12462: Overview of the BIG-IP Edge Client application for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. For more information about the BIG-IP Edge Portal, refer to SOL12328: Overview of the BIG-IP Edge Portal application for Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch or SOL12644: Overview of the BIG-IP Edge Portal application for Android devices.

Network Access

• The BIG-IP Edge Client application allows VPN network level access
• The BIG-IP Edge Portal application allows only web application access

For example, if a user needs access to only web applications such as Outlook Web Access or SharePoint, the BIG-IP Edge Portal application will meet their needs. However, the user will need the BIG-IP Edge Client if they need full VPN access to resources such as a file share, or an email client to connect to a protected email server.

Access to Resources

• The BIG-IP Edge Client application will allow access to resources that are configured on the FirePass Application Access > App Tunnels > Resources > Web Application Tunnels tab or the BIG-IP APM Access Policy > Web Applications page, in addition to resources configured on the FirePass Network Access > Resources page and the BIG-IP APM Access Policy > Network Access page.
• The BIG-IP Edge Portal application will allow users to access resources that are configured on the FirePass Application Access > App Tunnels > Resources > Web Application Tunnels tab or the BIG-IP APM Access Policy > Web Applications page.

Note: Any applications that require a client to be installed on the iOS device may not work if that application is not supported by Apple or Android.

Supported Authentication

• The BIG-IP Edge Client application supports authentication using a user name and password or a client certificate, RSA SecurID, N-factor authentication, and credential caching.
• The BIG-IP Edge Portal application supports authentication using a user name and password or a client certificate.