Dell Delivers PowerApp.BIG-IP Appliance Server Featuring F5 Networks' Award-Winning BIG-IP Controller Software.

Business/High Tech Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 2000

F5 Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FFIV), the leading provider of Content Delivery Infrastructure (CDI) and Internet Traffic Management (ITM) products, today announced that its BIG-IP(R) Controller software is being shipped on Dell(TM) Computer Corporation's PowerApp.BIG-IP appliance server.

As the latest addition to Dell's PowerApp(TM) family of appliance servers, the PowerApp.BIG-IP server is designed to ensure that web sites render optimal service levels-- withstanding traffic spikes, problematic servers and applications, and complex application processing. Dell, the No.2 provider of Standard Intel Architecture Servers in the world, selected the BIG-IP Controller technology because of its rich Application Layer load balancing functionality, ease of configuration, and widespread market adoption.

"The PowerApp.BIG-IP appliance server represents a key component of Dell's overall server strategy and brings significant value by delivering a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solution for load balancing Internet traffic across web-server farms," said Gene Austin, Vice President and General Manager of Internet Server Products with Dell's Enterprise Systems Group. "F5 Networks' BIG-IP technology complements Dell's PowerApp.web and PowerApp.cache appliance servers that enable customers to build-out their growing Internet infrastructures."

Dell's PowerApp.BIG-IP appliance server comes pre-configured and optimized with F5 Networks' BIG-IP software, which provides high availability and load balancing for server, caches, firewalls, and more. It maximizes uptime and performance of Internet and Intranet environments by quickly detecting server and application failures and transparently routing traffic to the server that is best able to handle the request. The PowerApp.BIG-IP server is designed to meet the requirements of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs), dot-coms, enterprise, and online retailers.

"Dell has developed and is executing a winning server strategy that continues to drive the company to an enviable position in the market," said Steve Goldman, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Services at F5 Networks. "F5 Networks' pre-eminence in the Internet traffic management market, along with our advanced, flexible, Intel-based products, creates a natural synergy with Dell's PowerApp server strategy. On top of that, our businesses are aligned with the same goals, which will fuel the success of our partnership, our companies, and our products."

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the leader in Internet Traffic and Content Management (iTCM). Our award winning integrated suite of high-performance best of breed products provide an end-to-end solution for automatically and intelligently managing Internet content and traffic-- globally. Our products remove bandwidth congestion and optimize the availability and speed of mission-critical Internet servers and applications, including web publishing, content delivery, e-commerce, caching, firewalls and more. F5 Networks helps companies avoid the risk of being burdened with ill-performing networks that do not meet end user expectations, while enabling network administrators to better control and predict the performance of their e-Business infrastructure. Our products are widely deployed in large enterprises, the top service providers, financial institutions, government agencies, healthcare, and portals throughout the world. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Germany, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. F5 Networks is located on the web at www.f5.com.

F5 Networks (Nasdaq:FFIV) Internet Traffic Management products support a wide range of operating systems and hardware platforms including those from: Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HWP), Compaq (NYSE:CPQ), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Intel (Nasdaq:INTC). F5 products work with leading IP-based applications, including legacy host, mainframe, Java, CORBA-based, and client/server applications from vendors such as SAP (NYSE:SAP), BAAN (NASDAQ:BAANF), Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL), and PeopleSoft (Nasdaq:PSFT).

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.