F5 NETWORKS DELIVERS 'IP APPLICATION SWITCH' TO MANAGE TRAFFIC FOR ENTERPRISE WEB SERVICES AND APPS.

F5 Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FFIV), a provider of Internet Traffic and Content Management (iTCM) products, has announced the BIG-IP 5000, the industry's first IP (Internet Protocol) Application Switch uniquely designed to manage traffic for current and next generation web services and applications.

The BIG-IP 5000 combines the benefits of BIG-IP's performance-leading Layer 7 software capabilities, integrated SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) processing, and high port density (4 Gigabit and 24 Fast Ethernet ports) for scale and economy. The BIG-IP 5000 enables the network infrastructure to accommodate the increasing demands placed upon the network to support complex web applications, data/voice/video convergence, and mobile computing, with vastly simplified management and complete security.

The arrival of the BIG-IP 5000 marks a new era of Internet traffic management (ITM). Offering a superior choice for enterprises and service providers building high-performance, scaleable, and profitable IP networks, the BIG-IP 5000 is the first and only port dense Internet Traffic Management solution that offers (1) integrated SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) at no extra charge to increase web server performance and ensure transaction security, (2) four times the processing power of any product in its class to deeply examine packets and intelligently direct traffic to the correct destination, (3) a centralized processing and switch fabric design for an "all-in-one" solution that reduces deployment costs and administration duties, and (4) an open API for seamless communication with all F5 products and any 3rd party application that supports F5's iControl.

T-Systems International GmbH, a hundred percent daughter company of Deutsche Telekom in Germany, is the second largest systems house in Europe with 37,000 employees and revenue of 10 billion Euro in 2000. T-Systems Nova, the innovation and technology center of T-Systems, tested the new F5 Networks Application Switch as the first and only test lab in Europe. In its laboratories in Darmstadt, T-Systems Nova carries out load stress and applications tests for IP-based networks.

"With its new BIG-IP 5000, F5 Networks has designed a product that combines the leading feature set with integrated SSL and high port density," said Andreas Gehring, Director IP Network Solutions of T-Systems Nova GmbH, who is conducting network tests. "This design improves the manageability and reduces costs of the network infrastructure. F5 Networks perfectly addresses the future requirements in the Internet Traffic and Content market with this product."

"West Group is the foremost provider of e-information solutions for the U.S. legal market, such as Westlaw, the online service that contains more than 15,000 legal, financial and business news databases," said Don St.Ores, Lead Network Engineer at West Group, a division of The Thomson Corporation. "With the sheer volume of information hosted on various databases that include extensive information from daily newspapers, news magazines, business, financial and trade publications, we require a system that is feature rich that will not sacrifice performance. With its performance-leading intelligence and speed, the BIG-IP 5000 more than exceeds the requirements for our networking infrastructure."

The BIG-IP 5000 provides a strategic and flexible solution through its ability to apply intelligent business rules to manage complex IP-based traffic, while decreasing the complexity and high costs associated with application deployment. IP applications require high availability, security, fast performance and specialized traffic handling to allow for deeper inspection of traffic at greater speeds. With more granular and better control over how, where, and when traffic is directed, customers are able to achieve a greater ROI (return on investment) on their applications infrastructure, while offering higher Quality of Service levels to users.

"Broadcom is very pleased that F5 has chosen to incorporate our performance-leading components into the BIG-IP 5000," said Henry Samueli, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of Broadcom. "F5 has successfully designed the market's first platform that combines Broadcom's optimized switch technology and integrated SSL processing as a standard feature. We're impressed with F5's understanding of its customers' Layer 2-7 and SSL requirements and its decision to include SSL processing in every BIG-IP 5000 IP Application Switch - an industry first. As the market moves toward end-to-end encryption for business-critical applications delivered over Internet technologies, F5's BIG-IP 5000, which leverages Broadcom's StrataSwitch integrated multi-layer switch family and CryptoNetX SSL processors, offers a highly robust solution to enterprises and service providers."

"Internet traffic management solutions are an increasingly essential infrastructure component to ensure maximum Web application availability with minimal management and cost," said Peter Firstbrook, Senior Research Analyst, The Meta Group. "Our enterprise customers are looking for a scalable flexible Internet traffic management system that is "plug and play" and has a low total cost of ownership. The integration of encryption acceleration and layer two switching with advanced Layer 7 is a natural evolution toward a simple, yet scaleable solution."

"F5 has consistently delivered the most advanced Layer 7 features and the special traffic handling capabilities that enterprise applications demand, but is now first to market in delivering all this packaged in a single, high-performance, port dense ITM device," said Jeff Pancottine, senior vice-president of marketing and business development at F5 Networks. "Competitive alternatives require deployment of multiple types of devices or simply cannot handle the applications, which increase the cost of ownership and management complexity. Given its unparalleled performance, scalability, onboard SSL processing, market leading price, and integrated iControl capabilities, the BIG-IP 5000 will be extremely disruptive to other vendors in the Traffic Management market."

The BIG-IP 5000 IP Application Switch is available today with the base model priced at $31,990 for a single unit, and $57,990 for a redundant pair. A base model unit is configured with 24 Fast Ethernet and 4 Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet switch ports to support fast uplinks and multiple servers, caches, databases, firewalls or other devices. Switch fabric operates at 8Gb/s in each direction or a total of 16Gb/s. Each unit has the most processing power in its class; supplied by dual PIII 1 GHz processors connected to the switch fabric and 1 Gigabyte of memory. Every base unit includes 100 TPS SSL capacity at no additional charge and is remotely upgradeable to 800 TPS. Customers who desire additional SSL capacity can obtain it incrementally via a software key, which allows them to purchase it only as they need it. A version of the BIG-IP 5000 that comes loaded with F5's award winning 3-DNS wide area load balancing solution is also available. Standard reseller discounts apply.