Drive a Successful Digital Transformation with F5 and Rackspace

Back about 6-7 years ago, the catchphrase in IT was ‘BYOD’ (bring-your-own-device). IT found itself having to figure out how to enable existing applications (e.g., email, Salesforce.com, Concur) to be accessed securely on various smartphones and tablets that employees brought in to use in doing their jobs. Similarly, the catchphrase in IT these days is ‘digital transformation.’ If you do an Internet search, you’ll come across a plethora of descriptions from various sources that lead you to realize that it’s not as simply definable as BYOD was. For the sake of a starting point, we’ll use Gartner’s description: Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities.

You noticed that it’s still a fairly vague description that doesn’t includes processes, applications, or platforms. So how does one have a ‘successful’ digital transformation when it can’t be easily described? Let’s first infer that the main driver of ‘new revenue and value-producing opportunities’ is based on applications. Applications are what users interact with online to order extra anchovies on their pizza or renew a driver’s license instead of going in and waiting in a long line. But adding definition and process to digital transformation still needs to be built out to arrive at the desired value-producing opportunities.

So how does one flesh out a detailed digital transformation plan? Work with partners and vendors who have been guiding the application-focused evolution of business processes for years and delivered results. Ideally, partners can bring flexibility, technology knowledge, and strong operational practices to sketch out successful outcomes based on your organization’s needs.

To assist businesses and government agencies with their digital transformation, F5 and Rackspace are deepening a long-held partnership to enable flexible, agile, and secure digitalization. Combining F5’s industry application and security technologies with Rackspace’s expertise in bare metal and multi-cloud infrastructure empowers an expansive digital transformation that delivers a superior user experience. Today, Rackspace manages a fleet of over 3,000 F5 application delivery controllers, providing businesses around the globe with consulting, services, and infrastructure to help them achieve their digital transformation goals.

To become a driver of digital transformation, Rackspace has purposefully evolved into an ‘agnostic digital transformation advisor.’ An agnostic digital transformation advisor is a partner who has following characteristics:

• Offers expertise with multiple clouds and a multitude of applications
• Provides complete lifecycle services for applications and data
• Supports container-based application development and deployment

Additionally, Rackspace has built its expertise and services on popular cloud platforms to ensure customers can implement applications where the fit is best.

To deliver the best possible application performance and reliability, Rackspace has evolved and expanded its services and automation capabilities to better support the F5 BIG-IP platform. Rackspace utilizes F5 solutions to implement application services and security that ensure ELAs are met and that the user experience is ideal. Rackspace has over 80 certified F5 personnel on staff to help customers determine the appropriate framework and processes for transforming their business infrastructure.

F5 has also advanced its BIG-IP technology to enable greater agility and flexibility for digital transformation. The innovation of BIG-IP application services and security for digital transformation spans across virtual and physical appliances to simplify operations and ensure consistency. Over the past few years, F5 has incorporated numerous technologies to better enable the digital transformation process. Below are just a few examples:

• Support for the latest TLS/SSL standards and encryption ciphers for decryption/encryption performance of application traffic in public and private clouds
• Expansion of REST APIs to enable third-party applications to make calls to F5 BIG-IP solutions and collect data for visibility and management
• Integration with Ansible, Hashi (Terraform) and Puppet to promote automation schemas that speed service delivery and reduce errors
• Expansion of F5 iRules to enable Node.js libraries to be used in policy-based control and manipulation of application traffic
• F5 Cloud solution templates (i.e., AWS, Azure, Google, VMware, and OpenStack) to drive fast, reliable instantiation in public and private clouds that eliminate errors

As F5 has pivoted toward a more ‘cloud-first’ focus, Rackspace has incorporated evolving F5 technologies to help customers build more fungible IT infrastructure to meet changing business needs.

With a strong joint customer base, F5 and Rackspace are committed to continue working together to drive successful digital transformations by:

• Continuing to enhance solutions and services to ensure that applications are fast, reliable, and secure anywhere
• Building deeper integration and services that speed up delivery, operations, and scalability of applications to meet business demands

To find out more about the F5/Rackspace commitment to driving successful digital transformation together, please reference:

• Joint F5/Rackspace Video
• F5 on the Rackspace Website
• F5 BIG-IP Cloud Solutions
• Contact Rackspace to Schedule a Conversation around Digital Transformation