F5 Networks is looking to extend its offering into L3-L4 WAN optimization.
The logic for F5 Networks is to offer modules of functionality on a common platform, namely the TMOS operating system unveiled last year. We’ll have TrafficShield on TMOS within a year, then FirePass within two, according to Andrew Stern, F5’s director of security marketing.
Apart from giving its customers the mix-and-match capability with the individual modules, this should also give F5 boasting rights against networking heavyweights Cisco and Juniper, both of which have moved into the application acceleration space through acquisition in the last six months (Cisco bought FineGround, Juniper bought RedLine).
Furthermore, a third player in the market, NetScaler, was snapped up by thin-client vendor Citrix. All the companies buying into app acceleration now face the challenge of integrating the portfolios they’ve acquired, either through a port to a common code base, or by providing single-console management capabilities, which appears to be Cisco’s current strategy with the FineGround technology.
However, if F5 is to compete on equal footing, it needs to have an offering in WAN optimization, an area where to date it has not had a clear focus.
We do a lot of the constituent parts of WAN optimization already, such as compression, said Mr Stern. We also do QoS based on the IP address, the characteristics of the client or the specifics of the application, and we’re unique in being able to associate how you log in with a list that identifies the level of service that should be delivered to you, making app-specific routing decisions based on that information. However, we haven’t yet offered remote office boxes to optimize the traffic, though we already do global load-balancing between data centers.
Mr Stern declined to go into detail, but admitted that a remote office offering in optimization would make sense. He also refused to be drawn on the timing of such a move, leaving the impression, however, that it would be sooner rather than later.
