F5 ARX Customers Validate Cost Savings of Automated Storage Tiering

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today released the results of independent, third-party research confirming strong, measurable economic benefits for organizations that implement storage tiering with F5^® ARX^® intelligent file virtualization solutions.

TechValidate, an independent research organization, has conducted a secondary study of F5 ARX customers to collect financial and operational benefit data. In the first customer survey, conducted in spring 2009, TechValidate confirmed the ROI of F5 file virtualization products deployed in enterprise organizations. In this latest study, TechValidate determined that:

• 52% of IT organizations reduced their storage budget by an average of 20% or more by deploying F5 ARX (Source: TechValidate. TVID: 3F9-1DA-708)
• 54% of IT organizations saved at least $100,000 of capital expenditure costs by deploying F5 ARX (Source: TechValidate. TVID: E10-602-6A7)
• 53% of IT organizations using F5 ARX reported a payback period of 12 months or less (Source: TechValidate. TVID: F47-715-302)

In addition, the study captured results reported by individual ARX customers, such as:

• A Global 500 pharmaceutical company saved $200,000 in capital expenditures (Source: TechValidate. TVID: 249-296-E9A)
• An entertainment company reduced its backup time from 56 hours to 1 hour (Source: TechValidate. TVID: 3C1-A99-481)
• A large media company reduced its overall annual storage budget by 30% (Source: TechValidate. TVID: AE9-88F-E90)

"These results are typical of what we see every day in organizations that deploy our ARX file virtualization solutions," said Nigel Burmeister, Director of Product Marketing for Data Solutions at F5. "The positive economic impact these products deliver is very real, very measurable, and quite rapid. By implementing an automated storage tiering strategy with F5 ARX, companies can achieve their cost-containment goals while still addressing the insatiable demand for more storage capacity."

F5 ARX solutions reduce the complexity of data management by eliminating the static mapping between client and storage resources, allowing data to move freely between resources without impacting users or requiring downtime. ARX's automated tiering functionality allows users to establish policies to place data on the appropriate storage tier, including archival, solid state disk, deduplication, and even cloud storage. This allows enterprises to use their storage assets in the most efficient manner and develop a storage strategy that fits their requirements at the lowest possible cost.

Learn More about F5's Data Management Solutions at these Upcoming Conferences:

• Storage Networking World and Cloud Summit, Phoenix, Booth #1303

  F5 Exhibiting

  Attendees at the Storage Networking World conference in Phoenix on October 12-15, 2009, will have an opportunity to learn about the value of storage tiering first-hand. F5 will display its powerful ARX solutions in Booth #1303 on the exhibit floor.

  F5 Customer Presentation: Suzuki Motor Corp.

  ARX customer Charles Chen, Lead Analyst at American Suzuki Motor Corporation, will provide first-hand insights into storage tiering when he presents "Architecting a Storage Environment for Agility and Growth" on Thursday, October 15 at 8:30 a.m. PT. Chen will describe how his organization responded to the management challenges created by file data growth rates of 50% annually by building an agile file storage infrastructure that incorporates storage tiering.

  F5 Presentation: "Tier X - Stretching Tiered Storage from the Data Center to the Cloud"

  Richard Gillett, Vice President, Data Systems Architecture, will present "Tier X - Stretching Tiered Storage from the Data Center to the Cloud" on Monday, October 12 at 2:50 p.m. PT. This presentation will provide attendees with an understanding of the basic principles of storage tiering, show how the same techniques will be applied to cloud storage, and provide examples of tiered storage savings in real-world environments.

  Gillett will also join other industry experts as a speaker in the special SNW Cloud Summit being held as part of the conference on Wednesday, October 14. Gillett's talk at this event is entitled "When Tiering the Cloud Makes Sense ... and When It Doesn't."

• Storage Expo, London, Booth #842

  F5 Presentation: "Tier X - Stretching Tiered Storage from the Data Center to the Cloud"

  Kirby Wadsworth, Vice President of Global Marketing, will present "Tier X - Stretching Tiered Storage from the Data Center to the Cloud" on Wednesday, October 14 at 4 p.m. BST. This presentation will provide attendees with an understanding of the basic principles of storage tiering, show how the same techniques will be applied to cloud storage, and provide examples of tiered storage savings in real-world environments.

• Storage Networking World Europe, Frankfurt, Booth #9

  F5 Customer Presentation: "Resource Optimization with File Virtualization"

  Kay Germann, Project Manager, Storage and Infrastructure at Signal Iduna - Tuesday, October 27 at 9:00 a.m. CEST.

  F5 Presentation: "Virtualization Demystified - 8 Ways to Virtualization and DC Consolidation"

  Ralf Sydekum, Technical Marketing Manager - Tuesday, October 27 at 1:30 p.m. CEST.

About TechValidate

TechValidate is a trusted third-party service that verifies the usage, configuration, and benefits of technology products and services. The company directly interfaces with business and technology end users to collect and validate information about their deployments. TechValidate's promise to the end-user community is to provide unbiased, verified information about the usage and benefits of technology products and services. More information is available at www.techvalidate.com.

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 organizations 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 the management of application, server, storage, and network resources, streamlining application delivery and reducing costs. Global enterprise organizations, service and cloud providers, and Web 2.0 content providers trust F5 to keep their business moving forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

F5 and ARX are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.