F5 Advances Data Center Vision With BIG-IP

F5 Networks (FFIV) announced the release of its BIG-IP version 11 software Monday, delivering its vision of the dynamic data center. The latest version speeds provisioning of services on an application-by-application basis, and enables better visibility and reporting of IT resource utilization.

With version 11, F5 makes it simple to provision the Application Delivery Network and enables the ability to configure, monitor, grow and secure applications independently. "As applications are virtualized and deployed in the cloud, the network becomes an integral part of the application delivery infrastructure and ultimately defines user productivity," said Karl Triebes, CTO and SVP of Product Development at F5.

Highlights

New features of the BIG-IP v11 solution include the ability to quickly deploy and optimize applications through iApps technology, raising IT efficiency with enhanced analytics and management capabilities, reducing OpEx and CapEx with a elastic pay-as-you-grow architecture, and protecting corporate assets with unified network and application security services. The new release will take full advantage of their Virtual Clustered Multiprocessing (vCMP) technology announced last May at Interop, which combines virtualization and multi-tenancy capabilities to simultaneously run multiple instances of BIP-IP solutions on a single device.

"We always strive to help our customers get more value out of their Unified Communications environments, whether it’s optimizing the user experience or streamlining IT staff deployment of the application," said Kapil Sharma, Principal Group Program Manager of Lync Partner Engineering at Microsoft. "F5’s release of iApp for Microsoft Lync will enable our joint customers to more rapidly deploy Lync application services while increasing availability and performance for users. iApps’ unique ability to automatically apply all necessary application delivery services specific to Lync environments will also help reduce errors caused by manual configuration."

BIG-IP Security Solutions

F5 also announced powerful enhancements to its application and data security solutions, providing customers with comprehensive security strategies to prevent loss of service and data. The BIG-IP version 11 software combined with BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM), BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM), BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM), and BIG-IP Edge Gateway deliver a unified platform that helps protect Web 2.0 applications and data, secure DNS infrastructures, and establish centralized application access and policy control.

“The latest rash of security attacks is catching many organizations by surprise because they mistakenly believe their siloed security solutions, such as network firewalls or IPS systems, offer enough protection,” said Triebes. “While the attacks themselves cannot be prevented, most of the security breaches that result from these attacks can unquestionably be stopped. Defending against such multilayer attacks requires an integrated approach that combines network security, application security, and access control. This type of strategy will be even more critical as organizations begin to move their applications and data into the cloud.”

BIG-IP version 11 software and virtual editions of F5’s BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager, Application Security Manager, and WAN Optimization Manager products will be available in the third quarter.