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F5 Pitches In With BIG-IP ADC to Join HP ProCurve ONE

January 30, 2009 - Vivek Naik
F5 Networks (F5) announced recently that it is providing its BIG-IP Application Delivery Controller as an optional part of Hewlett-Packard’s HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem (ONE), which allows customers to build a complex network infrastructure by choosing from an array of select dual direction and compatible solutions, and also to pick a vendor from those listed and approved. Eventual combinations are first tested and certified and then only passed on to the buyer.
Such a collaborative, open and flexi initiative passes multi benefits to the customer, who now can move away from highly priced proprietary offerings to buy the best technology at the lowest cost; tunnel vision modules to broadly envisaged and extensible hardware and platforms; and straight jacketed unavoidable sub systems to an upgrade-when-you-can-and-when-you-need-to approach.
BIG-IP ADC has a proven ability to constantly adapt to the ever changing, and therefore challenging, application environment within the enterprise architecture. The fourth to seventh layers in the Open Systems Interconnections (OSI) model - Transport for connectivity, Session for bidirectional communication, Presentation for data representation, and Application for processing - are protected through redirection, load balancing and failover, or switch over to a standby system.
Its Web acceleration increases response 5 to 10 times, reduces bandwidth consumption, frees space in the server, allows simultaneous multiple data exchange, and speeds up the networks by compressing digital information and lessening load on the servers.
Its Global Traffic Manager (GTM) instantly redirects traffic to the most efficient data center and, if that route is clogged, it redirects to another center irrespective of geographical location without a blink. This feature is helpful during blackouts, brownouts, physical disruptions; possible server crashes, and vouches for disaster recovery. Management across all applications in multiple sites is fully automated, thus effectively taking out of the equation possible errors and time loss that would occur had there been manual intervention.
Its Application Security Manager (ASM) protects against malignant system attacks. All traffic and every application is monitored and the ASM automatically updates, hides the server identity, and issues denial of service as and when required.
BIG-IP ADC and HP ProCurve ONE deliver platform virtualization in which simulated computer environments are created and thus effectively hide the computing and physical intricacies of the actual platform. “Virtualized, open platforms that include a strong level of certification and support are well suited to meet these emerging demands.,” said Mark Fabbi, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, an information technology research and advisory firm.
F5 Networks was originally called F5 Labs when it was founded in 1996. Interestingly, the ‘F5′ in the company name indicates the most severe type of tornado, when rated on the Fujita Scale (specifically derived for Tornadoes), and was indeed inspired by an action movie about these natural phenomena - Twister. Incidentally, some Tornadoes reach wind speeds in excess of 300 mph, or 480 km/h. F5, and its customers, possibly feel that it delivers speedier stuff that goes beyond another analogy in Formula 1, or F1.

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