F5 Enables Orchestration and Management of Application Services with New BIG-IQ

F5 BIG-IQ and Cisco APIC offer customers the ability to deploy and deliver applications with the speed, reliability and security

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, MARCH 19, 2015 – F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced the next version of its F5® BIG-IQ™, the company’s intelligent management framework that provides a single point of integration for administering and orchestrating security and application delivery services. With this update, BIG-IQ enables deeper collaboration between the network operations centre and DevOps teams by centrally managing application delivery and by employing role based access control (RBAC). The resulting workflow simplifies operations – boosting efficiency and freeing the network team from having to set individual application delivery policies while maintaining a flexible approval process.

 “BIG-IQ is a critical pillar of F5 Synthesis™ architecture, and continues to deliver on our vision in automating processes and redeeming the time spent on manual operational tasks performed week after week,” said Emmanuel Bonnassie, Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at F5. “As companies take steps to ensure that they have the appropriate levels of service in a hybrid infrastructure environment, we are proud that BIG-IQ is the only solution of its kind to integrate both RBAC and a system for staging and scheduling configuration changes.”

Product Details

BIG-IQ offers both an innovative UI and RESTful APIs to centrally manage F5 BIG-IP devices and to control F5’s Local Traffic Manager, Advanced Firewall Manager and Application Security Manager solutions. BIG-IQ’s use of iApps®templates orchestrates Software Defined Application Services™ both locally and in public and private clouds to increase business agility while eliminating many of the risks associated with managing point solutions individually.  BIG-IQ provides a single point of integration between solutions from F5 and technologies from Cisco, VMware, and OpenStack.

Key capabilities include:

• Manage Application Delivery Services: Role-based central management of application delivery functions across the network to increase agility with software-defined orchestration of application services.
• Orchestrate Application Delivery in the Cloud: Enhanced connectivity and partner integration with expanded orchestration and management of cloud platforms via third-party developers, as well as improved customer experience via workflows and integrations.
• Manage BIG-IP Devices: Manage physical and virtual BIG-IP devices and virtual edition (VE) licensing from a single pane of glass.
• Manage Security: Centralises security policy deployment, administration, and management, thereby simplifying firewall policy management and enabling stronger security.
• Reduce Risk: Safer change management through simplified configuration and the removal of many of the administrative touch-points across multiple devices.

Cisco APIC Integration

As part of our tightly integrated technology partnership, these BIG IQ orchestration updates will also be available through the Cisco® Application Policy Infrastructure Controller™ (APIC). BIG-IQ reduces the learning path for network engineers who are new to application services by orchestrating physical and virtual platforms in both traditional architectures and software-defined network (SDN) environments. A Cisco partner for deploying policy-driven application services across layer 2-7 fabrics, F5 helps joint customers significantly reduce operating costs without compromising security, availability, or performance. As an extension of the F5 Synthesis architecture and programmable Software Defined Application Services within Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), BIG-IQ® solutions are uniquely positioned to bring L4–7 multi-tenant capabilities to Cisco ACI environments.

“The joint Cisco ACI and F5 Synthesis solution enables IT to operationalise critical data centre network and Layer 4-7 services to meet business and consumer demands for application performance, security and reliability. At the heart of the integration is the ACI open policy model that offers investment protection with emphasis on programmability, automation, scale, and security. In addition, the combination of ACI-embedded multi-tenancy with the BIG-IP platform’s equivalent functions makes the integration of Cisco and F5 technologies more attractive for service providers, enterprises, and large financial institutions on their journey to the cloud.” said Courtney Dodds, Director, Data Centre Australia and New Zealand, Cisco.

Availability

The F5 Device Package for Cisco APIC is available as a free download via downloads.f5.com. Please contact a local F5 sales office for additional information and product availability in specific countries.

Additional Resources

To see live demonstrations, visit us at Booth P1 Cisco Live 2015 in Melbourne, Australia on 17 - 20  March.

• F5’s Technology Alliance with Cisco
• Solution Profile
• Application Centric Configuration of F5 BIG-IP in Cisco ACI Using BIG-IQ

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) makes apps go faster, smarter, and safer for the world’s largest businesses, service providers, governments, and consumer brands. F5 delivers cloud and security solutions that enable organizations to embrace the application infrastructure they choose without sacrificing speed and control. For more information, go to f5.com. You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.

F5 is a trademark or service mark 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.

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