F5 Networks' BIG-IP Solution Dramatically Cuts App Delivery Costs
Announcement posted by F5 Networks 16 Jun 2009
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), today announced its BIG-IP version 10 software release. The innovative solution helps organisations align IT and business by streamlining application delivery, reducing CapEx and OpEx costs, and improving workforce efficiency. BIG-IP v10 unifies application security, optimisation, and acceleration onto a single device, paving the way for enterprises and service providers to establish a more dynamic IT infrastructure. This software release complements the introduction of F5's new BIG-IP 8900 hardware platform, also announced today.
BIG-IP v10 is a milestone release supporting F5's vision of Unified Application and Data Delivery Services, which redefines how application, server, storage, and network resources are aligned and managed to deliver services that fluidly adapt to changing business requirements. These services provide an agile framework of simple and efficient mechanisms to integrate emerging dynamic computing models, such as virtualisation, cloud computing, and SaaS (software as a service), without having to completely re-architect existing systems.
The BIG-IP system: The solution to achieve a more dynamic infrastructure
F5's unified and integrated approach to application delivery offers as much as a threefold improvement in IT staff efficiency through rapid deployment, on-demand services, and tools that reduce training and administrative time. In addition, by unifying, consolidating, virtualising, and optimising the application delivery infrastructure, customers can save more than 50 percent on hardware, power, space, and cooling costs.
Contextual awareness: A vital asset for successful Application Delivery Networking
A dynamic infrastructure is able to understand the context of an application, its deployment environment, and its users, and thus apply relevant policies to optimise the delivery of that application. By unifying application services-such as optimisation, security, acceleration, and more-across a dynamic infrastructure, F5 solutions enable organisations to implement a comprehensive solution that is intelligent, consolidated, and resource-efficient. BIG-IP v10 builds on F5's existing context-aware capabilities with its unique iSessions framework, which creates a secure site-to-site connection between two symmetrically deployed BIG-IP devices.
The new BIG-IP release empowers organisations to:
Streamline Application Delivery through Unified Services
BIG-IP v10 builds on F5's market leadership in advanced Application Delivery Controllers by unifying application delivery and WAN delivery services. The BIG-IP system now provides iSessions, the framework that encrypts and optimises data between a symmetric deployment of BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager™ (LTM™) devices. This capability improves transfer rates, reduces bandwidth consumption, and offloads applications for more efficient WAN communication.
Drive Down Costs by Consolidating the Application Delivery Infrastructure
BIG-IP v10 helps customers unify individual devices onto a single solution, consolidating the ADN infrastructure three-to-one. BIG-IP LTM, BIG-IP WebAccelerator™, and BIG-IP Application Security Manager™ (ASM™) modules now all run natively on F5's TMOS plug-in architecture, giving customers the means to secure and accelerate web applications on a single BIG-IP device. Through this consolidation, customers can significantly cut hardware, power space, and cooling costs. In addition, IT staff can now efficiently support multiple customers, applications, and business units-on the same device-through the BIG-IP device's network virtualisation capability.
Increase Workforce Efficiency with Rapid Deployment, On-Demand Tools, and Services
BIG-IP v10 offers enhancements and new features designed to simplify management and improve the productivity of those managing BIG-IP devices. Highlights include integration with existing authentication systems, at-a-glance dashboard monitoring capabilities, and a rich library of Application Ready Templates. The templates are designed to simplify the creation of profiles, policies, and other pertinent configuration parameters needed to optimise a BIG-IP deployment with specific applications, such as Microsoft SharePoint 2007, Exchange Web Access 2007, VMware View™, Oracle Application Server 10g, and SAP ERP. By using these templates, setup time can be reduced from several hours to a few minutes.
Availability
BIG-IP version 10 and all associated product modules are available today. Software product modules include BIG-IP LTM, ASM, WebAccelerator, Global Traffic Manager™, and Link Controller™. The new Application Ready Templates are available for no additional fee. More information on the new BIG-IP release can be found at www.f5.com/products/big-ip/v10.html.
Quotes
"BIG-IP v10 is a milestone release that marks a significant shift in the application delivery market, offering major innovations that deliver substantial ROI,"
"For organisations to successfully employ new dynamic computing models, such as virtualisation and cloud services, to deliver applications on-demand, it's vital that their infrastructure be context-aware. F5's integrated approach affords contextual awareness in order to understand the user, device, location, network condition, and application requirements, and dynamically adjust to act on specific conditions. BIG-IP v10 is the cornerstone of this model, delivering a powerful new level of integration and consolidation to streamline application delivery in order to deliver services that generate true business value." Erik Giesa, VP of Product Management and Marketing at F5
"BIG-IP v10 supports Microsoft's vision for unified communications solutions like Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 by helping power communication across the applications, networks, and devices businesses already know and use,"
"Working with Microsoft, F5 helps customers streamline applications to improve user communication and collaboration." Yancey Smith, Director, Microsoft Unified Communications Group
"VMware's industry-leading virtualisation platform is driving down capital and operating expenses for customers both in the data center as well as on the desktop,"
"VMware and F5 share a common goal of enabling customers to maximise the value gained from virtualisation initiatives. BIG-IP v10 can further enrich the application deployment experience in a VMware virtualised environment. For example, with its new VMware View templates, customers can adapt their BIG-IP settings to optimise their virtual desktop deployments." Shekar Ayyar, Vice President of Infrastructure Alliances at VMware
"In the healthcare industry, the security and availability of medical information are always top-of-mind,"
"With F5's BIG-IP product family, we're able to integrate network and application services without compromising performance or data access. As an F5 customer since 2002, we're pleased with the forward-looking innovation that the BIG-IP family of products delivers. The new release promises to build on BIG-IP's rich feature set and provide the context-aware and customisable capabilities we can rely on to stay ahead of evolving privacy and compliance regulations." Randy Paxton, Lead Network Engineer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, a health benefits provider serving nearly one million members in 32 counties in Missouri and Kansas
"SoftLayer provides global, on-demand data center and hosting services, leveraging best-in-class technology to offer customers innovative, fully automated solutions that empower enterprises with complete access, control, security, and scalability,"
"F5's BIG-IP solution provides us with a forward-looking platform and a key enabling technology for SoftLayer's dynamic infrastructure, helping to secure applications and offload compute-intense functions to allow for massive scalability. And, BIG-IP's ability to automate via F5's open iControl API and work with solutions like Microsoft's Hyper-V and VMware's VDI is a huge advantage as it ensures the seamless automation that's required in virtualised environments." Nathan Day, CTO at SoftLayer
"Datacenter networking initiatives are driven by the need to deliver a resilient architecture to the datacenter. The network is playing a greater role as customers look at how they can optimise their existing assets while reducing costs given the economic times,"
"IDC anticipates IT spend to recover in 2010, but 2009 is the year where application delivery can be the lynchpin to help IT organisations cut costs as customers begin to view their datacenter as a cohesive entity rather than a collection of piece parts. As a result, solutions that further the goal of providing common building blocks that can be assembled to lead toward a dynamic datacenter that is responsive to business priorities will have the greatest chance of success." Lucinda Borovick, Research Vice President, Datacenter Networks for IDC
"With v10, we are able to provide our clients a suite of Application Delivery Networking solutions,"
"Because F5 puts so much power and functionality into a single platform, we are able to deliver a highly virtualised and scalable solution that we believe is unmatched in the industry. By offering unified application services on a scalable platform, F5's new version of BIG-IP provides a flexible framework that we can customise to address exactly what the goals of our clients are today. Our constant focus at Trace|3 is making sure that our clients are successful in achieving their IT business objectives. With F5 as a core technology partner, we are very confident that we can deliver." John Pfaff, Director of Sales at Trace|3, a leading information technology systems integration firm based in Southern California
About F5 Networks
F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), focused on ensuring the secure, reliable, and fast delivery of applications. F5's flexible architectural framework enables community-driven innovation that helps organisations enhance IT agility and dynamically deliver services that generate true business value. F5's vision of unified application and data delivery offers customers an unprecedented level of choice in how they deploy ADN solutions. It redefines how application, server, storage, and network resources are aligned and managed to streamline application delivery and reduce costs. Global enterprise organisations, service providers, and Web 2.0 content providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their business moving forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.
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For further information please contact:
Jo-Anne Simon F5 Networks 02 9978 1502
Shuna Boydpr BoydPR 02 9418 8100