Application Delivery Networking (ADN) firm F5 Networks has extended its support for the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) offerings, including Citrix XenDesktop, VMware View, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and others.
For customers using VDI technologies, F5 offers BIG-IP, a unified and comprehensive approach to manage and accelerate network traffic, optimise performance, and centralise access and security policies.
BIG-IP offerings improve VDI performance by reducing server load, optimising TCP connections, managing both local and global traffic and enhances security of VDI deployments by enabling IT to apply unified access and security policies across all devices and users, both internal and external.
In addition, BIG-IP provides Quality of Service and supports Multi-Stream ICA, improving the performance of latency-sensitive traffic such as VoIP and they also include native iApps templates for VMware View and Citrix XenDesktop.
For Citrix XenDesktop deployments, BIG-IP v11.1 provides additional savings with its integrated web interface service, which eliminates the need for Citrix web interface servers and ticketing servers.
F5 Networks Product Management and Product Marketing senior vice-president Erik Giesa said BIG-IP products are unique in that they integrate authentication, directory services, SSL offloading, and other services throughout the desktop infrastructure so organisations can optimise virtual desktop delivery with fewer resources, while also supporting network and application access control for non-VDI enabled applications.
"Unlike the current alternatives, BIG-IP gives organisations the flexibility to implement a VDI solution that best meets their needs today, as well as tomorrow, while keeping infrastructure costs down," said Giesa.
