F5
Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV)
and VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) today announced interoperability between
F5’s BIG-IQ®
management platform and the VMware
NSX™ network virtualization platform for rapid
orchestration of layer 2–7 network and application services in the software-defined
data center (SDDC). Today’s announcement focuses on enabling
customers to combine the VMware NSX platform’s network service
automation with F5’s application delivery service management. This marks
the latest in a series of collaborative efforts between the companies to
bring compelling IT benefits to their mutual data center customers.
Typically, provisioning services for new applications—or changing
parameters no matter how slightly for deployed applications—is a long,
manual process. With a combined F5 and VMware solution, customers will
be able to leverage the full suite of BIG-IP®
services directly from within the NSX Manager as part of the normal
virtual machine deployment process, enabling them to reduce provisioning
time from days to minutes.
The F5 and VMware NSX technologies interoperate with management
plane-level REST-based APIs that are used by F5 BIG-IP to register and
deploy application services that can be consumed by F5 users in their
software-defined data center. The NSX traffic steering capability
enables traffic to be redirected to the F5 service. This combination
allows F5 iApps®
to be leveraged by NSX, and to be consumed as vendor templates that F5
customers can instantiate with application-specific parameters.
With F5 and VMware products, customers will be able to automate the
deployment of policy-driven services for multi-tiered applications in
their software-defined data center. The solution will be able to be
deployed non-disruptively, enabling customers to leverage BIG-IP and
BIG-IQ features in NSX virtual environments. Users will also be able to
continue to use their custom iApps templates through native F5
interfaces.
KEY BENEFITS
-
Simplified Management – Customers will be able to take full
advantage of F5’s broad range of application services without
management complexity. NSX provides operational agility for
application-specific (rich layer 7 protocol) services for
acceleration, availability, and security. The integration will provide
customers with greater control over how services are holistically
applied, along with unified services across L2–3 networking fabric and
L4–7 application delivery fabric.
-
Scalable Services and Automation – A consistent
consumption model and API-based integration will enable customers to
set and configure polices for acceleration, security, availability,
and virtualization services for data center and cloud deployments. The
joint solution will give IT teams the ability to automate the way
VMware and F5 systems perform and respond to changing conditions,
without disrupting production infrastructure or impacting
revenue-generating business applications.
-
Smooth Application Rollouts – By combining the strengths of
each vendor’s approach, organizations will be positioned to maximize
network and application performance with Software-Defined
Application Services™. Integrated capabilities extend
the utility of F5 iApps templates, providing prescriptive guidance to
optimize popular applications and additional deployment scenarios.
SUPPORTING QUOTES
“Many organizations have VMware and F5 solutions in their
infrastructures, and our goal is to make it even easier for customers to
reap additional benefits by combining the companies’ technologies. The F5
Synthesis™ framework and Software-Defined Application
Services provide an ideal fit for VMware-based data center initiatives.
Looking forward, we see many opportunities to build on existing
partnership efforts to help customers add capabilities without
complexity and maximize the effectiveness of data center and cloud
deployments.”
Manny Rivelo, EVP, Strategic Solutions, F5
“Customers are adopting networking virtualization on the path to the
software-defined data center, and our world-class ecosystem of partners
such as F5 will help customers accelerate SDDC implementation. Customers
will be able to extend the use of F5’s L4–7 services through a
Software-Defined Application Services model into the SDDC. The
interoperability between VMware NSX™ network virtualization
and F5’s application delivery architecture—and the unique ability to
provision and consume iApps—allows our mutual customers to create more
agile data centers.”
Hatem Naguib, VP, Networking and Security, VMware
“Automation for agility and high-quality application performance is a
top driver for the data center. The integration between F5 BIG-IQ and
VMware NSX answers these requirements by providing orchestration and
shared management of virtualized networks and application services,
delivering significant benefit to their enterprise and service provider
customers.”
Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., Directing Analyst, Data Center, Cloud, and
SDN, Infonetics Research
AVAILABILITY
VMware NSX 6.1 and BIG-IQ 4.4 will both be available during the third
quarter of calendar year 2014. For F5 solutions, please contact a local
sales office for availability in specific countries. An F5 reference
architecture for VMware NSX is available today at https://f5.com/solutions/architectures/vmware-nsx.
This integration and other F5 and VMware solutions will be showcased at
this week’s VMworld
event in San Francisco—please visit F5 at booth #1621.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure
solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers
rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and
consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is
evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2013 revenues of
$5.21 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000
partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices
throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
About F5
F5 (NASDAQ:
FFIV) provides solutions for an application world. F5 helps
organizations seamlessly scale cloud, data center, and software defined
networking (SDN) deployments to successfully deliver applications to
anyone, anywhere, at any time. F5 solutions broaden the reach of IT
through an open, extensible framework and a rich partner ecosystem of
leading technology and data center orchestration vendors. This approach
lets customers pursue the infrastructure model that best fits their
needs over time. The world’s largest businesses, service providers,
government entities, and consumer brands rely on F5 to stay ahead of
cloud, security, and mobility trends. For more information, go to f5.com.
You can also follow @f5networks
on Twitter or visit us on Facebook
for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.
F5, BIG-IP, BIG-IQ, F5 Synthesis, Software Defined Application Services,
iApps, and DevCentral 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.
VMware and VMware NSX are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware,
Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word
“partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership
relationship between VMware and any other company.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to
future events or future financial performance that involve risks and
uncertainties. Such statements can be identified by terminology such as
"may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes,"
"estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of
such terms or comparable terms. These statements are only predictions
and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in
these statements based upon a number of factors including those
identified in the company's filings with the SEC.
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