Updated BIG-IP Helps Align IT with Business, Cut Application Delivery Costs

F5 Networks, Inc. has announced version 10 of its BIG-IP software that helps organizations align IT and business by streamlining application delivery, reducing CapEx and OpEx costs, and improving workforce efficiency. BIG-IP v10 unifies application security, optimization, and acceleration onto a single device so enterprises and service providers can establish a more dynamic IT infrastructure.

BIG-IP v10 is a milestone release supporting F5's vision of unified application and data delivery services, which focuses on 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 virtualization, cloud computing, and SaaS (software as a service), without having to completely re-architect existing systems.

The BIG-IP system solution achieves a more dynamic infrastructure thanks to F5's unified and integrated approach to application delivery that offers as much as a three-fold improvement in IT staff efficiency. It also uses rapid deployment, on-demand services, and tools that reduce training and administrative time. In addition, by unifying, consolidating, virtualizing, and optimizing the application delivery infrastructure, customers can save more than 50 percent on hardware, power, space, and cooling costs.

Contextual Awareness Aids in Successful Application Delivery Networking

A dynamic infrastructure can understand the context of an application, its deployment environment, and its users, then apply relevant policies to optimize the delivery of that application. By unifying application services (such as optimization, security, and acceleration) across a dynamic infrastructure, F5 solutions enable organizations 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.

With BIG-IP version 10, organizations can:

• Streamline application delivery through unified services: BIG-IP v10 builds on F5's advanced Application Delivery Controllers by unifying application delivery and WAN delivery services. The BIG-IP system now provides iSessions, the framework that encrypts and optimizes 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, letting customers secure and accelerate Web applications on a single BIG-IP device. Thanks to 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 virtualization 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 that are designed to simplify the creation of profiles, policies, and other pertinent configuration parameters needed to optimize 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. Templates cut setup time from several hours to a few minutes.

Availability

BIG-IP version 10 and associated product modules (including BIG-IP LTM, ASM, WebAccelerator, Global Traffic Manager, and Link Controller) are available now. The new application-ready templates are available for no additional fee. More information is available at http://www.f5.com/products/big-ip/v10.html