F5 Networks Announces Powerful New BIG/ip Controller.SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 9, 1999-- Internet Traffic Management Upgrade Delivers Additional Performance, High Availability, and Security For Business-Critical Internet Sites F5 Networks, Inc., (Nasdaq:FFIV FFIV Final Fantasy Four (video game) ), a leading provider of Internet Traffic Management (ITM ITM See: In-the-money ) products, today announced the release of Version 2.1 of its BIG/ip(R) Controller. BIG/ip now delivers even greater performance, advanced high availability, and better security for Internet sites. BIG/ip continuously monitors each server and/or device for availability, then routes incoming user requests to the server that is best able to respond. "We believe this new version of BIG/ip is the most advanced, feature-packed high-availability load balancing product on the market," said Steve Goldman, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Services. "We know of nothing that competes with it now in terms of combined performance and feature-set. Maybe that's why over 600 customers trust F5 Networks' proven technology to control their web sites, including Nordstrom.com, People's Bank, and Egghead.com -- to name a very few." Says Goldman, "Our existing customers under maintenance contract receive this upgrade without additional cost, and without having to replace hardware. We're rewarding them for their previous decision to go with F5, delivering on our promise of quick and cost-efficient upgrades, and providing new customers with a platform that we feel certain is only going to get better and better." Six Persistence Modes The BIG/ip Controller now features more "persistence" modes than any other Internet Traffic Management product. Persistence is required to seamlessly process user requests, while keeping the link unbroken between an Internet site and a customer. BIG/ip offers persistence options through a myriad of different modes: Source, Server, VIP, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet. Developed by Netscape, SSL is widely used to do two things: to validate the identity of a Web site and to create an encrypted connection for sending credit card and other personal data. , and now Cookie Persistence and Destination Address Affinity. For additional details on BIG/ip Controller persistence, please access: http://www.f5.com/solutions/techbriefs/SSLpersistence.html. Cookie Persistence Cookie Persistence (patent-pending) uses cookie information stored by a client to direct the client connection to the appropriate server. The BIG/ip Controller offers 3 different modes of Cookie Persistence to fit any application. Destination Address Affinity Destination Address Affinity is ideal when BIG/ip is used to load balance caches. In this scenario, BIG/ip redirects requests for the same content back to the same cache, resulting in efficient cache utilization while decreasing the amount of redundant data in the server array, which can slow overall site performance. Network-Based Fail-Over High availability is also achieved through network-based fail-over. This can be used in addition to hardwired failover, and allows a pair of redundant BIG/ip Controllers to be physically separated, providing enhanced manageability for IT managers. Mirroring A new mirroring feature on BIG/ip provides seamless fail-over protection of client connections from an active BIG/ip Controller to a standby controller. If a client is in the middle of transferring a large file using FTP FTP in full file transfer protocol Internet protocol that allows a computer to send files to or receive files from another computer. Like many Internet resources, FTP works by means of a client-server architecture; the user runs client software to connect to , for example, and BIG/ip fails-over from the active to the standby unit, the FTP file transfer will continue, uninterrupted. ECV (Extended Content Verification) IT managers can now also perform ECV (Extended Content Verification) with the BIG/ip Controller with web servers, firewalls, cache servers, proxy servers, and other transparent devices. For example, ECV allows managers to verify whether a firewall is functioning properly by retrieving content through it. Application Checking BIG/ip now includes a browser and CLI configuration interface for predefined Extended Application Verification (EAV EAV, n.pr See electroacupuncture according to Voll. ) tests that check the health and status of Internet services. The first predefined EAV application checks include FTP, NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) The protocol used to connect to Usenet groups on the Internet. Usenet newsreaders support the NNTP protocol. See also NTP. (messaging) NNTP - Network News Transfer Protocol. , SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) The standard e-mail protocol on the Internet and part of the TCP/IP protocol suite, as defined by IETF RFC 2821. SMTP defines the message format and the message transfer agent (MTA), which stores and forwards the mail. , POP3, and MS SQL. VLAN See virtual LAN. VLAN - Virtual Local Area Network Trunking BIG/ip also now provides support for the 802.1qVLAN trunking mode, so IT managers can create separate virtual networks, segment their web traffic, and direct it to various servers based on specific customer requirements and needs. IT managers now also have more freedom in the delegation of duties for their network management group; BIG/ip includes 3 levels of user access: Full read/write, Partial read/write, and Read-only. Advanced Performance BIG/ip now delivers a much higher throughput -- to 350 Mb/s (up from 170 Mb/s), with a Q4/99 version already testing at 600 Mb/s. These performance increases benefit a myriad of applications in various environments, including corporate sites, co-location facilities, and Intranet sites. For additional details on BIG/ip Controller performance gains, please access: http://www.f5.com/performance/. nPath(TM) Technology BIG/ip now also includes an optional mode called nPath(TM). This feature is based on an assumption that 90 percent of server demands are outbound-related, with only 10 percent being inbound. nPath takes advantage of this, allowing servers to bypass BIG/ip when returning traffic back to the client. A business involved in downloading streaming media, for example, can choose to engage this functionality. BIG/ip will then manage the incoming traffic. For additional details on BIG/ip Controller nPath functionality, please access: http://www.f5.com/solutions/techbriefs/index.html. Advanced Security BIG/ip now also features Secure Network Address Translation (SNAT SNAT Source Network Address Translation SNAT Secure Network Address Translation SNAT Stateful Network Address Translation SNAT Static Network Address Translation ). This provides servers with a secure outbound connection to the Internet, or to an internal server array through a load balanced virtual server. SNAT connection requests can only come from IP addresses recognized by BIG/ip. Pricing & Availability BIG/ip Version 2.1 is available immediately. Software upgrades will be provided to current BIG/ip customers under maintenance contract, free of charge. About F5 Networks 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 SUNW Sun Microsystems, Inc (former stock symbol; now JAVA) SUNW Stanford University Network Workstation (Sun Microsystems, Inc) ), Hewlett Packard (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :HWP), Compaq (NYSE:CPQ), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT MSFT Microsoft (stock symbol) MSFT Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Italy) MSFT Multi-Stage Fitness Test MSFT Master of Science in Family Therapy MSFT Macalester Students for Fair Trade ), Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL AAPL Apple Computer, Inc. (stock symbol) AAPL American Association of Professional Landmen AAPL American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law AAPL Advance Audiovisual Presentation Limited AAPL Advocates for Arkansas Public Libraries ), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Intel (Nasdaq:INTC INTC Intel (NASDAQ symbol) INTC Intercept INTC Interrupt Controller ). 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 NOVL Novell, Inc. (stock abbreviation, AMEX) ), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL ORCL Oracle (stock symbol) ), and PeopleSoft (Nasdaq:PSFT PSFT PeopleSoft (stock symbol) PSFT Progressive Saturation Fourier Transform PSFT Prosoft-Technology, Inc ). F5 is a leading provider of integrated Internet traffic management solutions designed to improve the availability and performance of mission-critical Internet-based servers and applications. These products monitor and manage local and geographically dispersed servers and devices, intelligently directing traffic to the server best able to handle a user's request. F5's solutions help prevent system failure, provide timely responses to user requests and data flow, and cost-effectively manage an organization's Internet infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Seattle, and has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, New York Boston is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 7,897 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Boston, Massachusetts. The Town of Boston is an interior town of the county and one of the county's "Southtowns. , Atlanta, Washington, D.C., London, Munich, Germany, Singapore and Australia. F5 is located on the web at www.f5.com. All trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. |
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