Welcome from John McAdam, F5 CEO

Going Virtual

Welcome to the October issue of F5 World, providing you with the tools, news, and information you need to deliver business critical applications quickly, securely, and reliably.

This quarter, we're going virtual in a big way--from our technologies and partner solutions to F5 World magazine. To mirror our commitment to virtualization, we decided to make this issue of the magazine "virtual," both in the articles we feature and in the way you receive them.

At F5, we've been building our technology to ensure that your network and storage can handle the added stresses of a virtual server infrastructure, maximizing resources and improving performance so you get the most out of your virtualization investment. In this issue, we take a closer look at how our partnerships with virtualization leaders VMware and Microsoft have helped us to expand our virtualization benefits. Read about our partnership with VMware and then take a look at a conversation we had with VMware about the future of virtualization. Our article about the Microsoft and F5 solution takes an in-depth look at our partnership and how we're working with Microsoft in its labs to create a management pack to give users insight into the network and streamline management with Microsoft virtualization tools.

Virtualization is today's latest buzzword, but there are a lot of different definitions floating around about what virtualization will mean to your data center. In our last issue of F5 World, we featured an article defining the "5 Ways to Future-Proof Your Infrastructure." In this issue, we take that one step further and address what steps you need to take to implement virtualization in your data center with the article "Growing Into the Virtual Data Center."

Because F5 helps you optimize both network and storage in your virtual infrastructure, we're featuring an article that explains how the F5 ARX solution helped Wiley publishing, the publisher of the popular For Dummies^® series of books. Read how Wiley uses the ARX product's powerful file virtualization capabilities to manage exploding data growth and stay ahead of the curve.

Enjoy this month's "virtual" online issue and thank you again for your interest in F5 World. Please let us know what topics you would like us to cover in upcoming issues. F5 World is here for you.

Sincerely,
John McAdam

By the way, we'd really enjoy hearing from you. If you have story or article suggestions, or want to comment on something you have read, email us at f5world@f5.com.

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By John McAdam, F5 CEO.

Photographs by Dennis Wise of Studio 3 Inc.

October 2008

Issue Articles

• Home
• Welcome from John McAdam
• VMware and F5
• Q&A with VMware
• Cover Story: One for the books
• Microsoft Virtualization Meets F5
• Virtual Data Center