F5 Networks has introduced BIG-IP Cloud Edition, available May 31, enabling customers to quickly deploy critical application services for every app and any environment. BIG-IP Cloud Edition is offered as a per-app virtual Application Delivery Controller (ADC) that can apply and automate policy-based services at each step in the development and production pipeline. This approach empowers app owners to better collaborate with NetOps, DevOps, and SecOps within an agile framework to significantly improve the performance, availability, and security of all applications.
BIG-IP Cloud Edition combines F5’s broad portfolio of application services with the dramatically enhanced management, visibility, and analytics capabilities of BIG-IQ. F5’s says its software-based solution lets customers easily add ‘right-sized’ services tailored for individual applications, multiple cloud environments, and user demands. As a prominent use case, the solution enables customers to deploy Advanced Web Application Firewall policies to address sophisticated application threats in a consistent way across public and private clouds.
“We see application services evolving to a per-app model that enables NetOps, SecOps, and application development teams to deploy consistent and right-sized application services for every app, regardless of where those apps run,” said Kara Sprague, SVP and General Manager of the ADC business unit at F5. “There persists a misconception that you have to choose between rich services and agile, portable service deployment. Our goal with BIG-IP Cloud Edition is to remove this false dichotomy, and better enable NetOps and SecOps teams to deploy a full range of traffic management and security services in a lightweight software footprint, easily add new applications to their services mix, and more swiftly embrace DevOps practices.”
From F5’s recent State of Application Delivery research, the average organisation relies on 16 different application services to keep their apps fast, safe, and available. Today’s NetOps teams require scalable services that are easy to procure, can be consumed in a variety of ways, and are highly programmable. BIG-IP Cloud Edition has been designed with these aims in mind, and will support a number of deployment scenarios, including subscription, licensing, and utility billing models. This approach brings together the feature rich, customizable capabilities of F5’s traditional BIG-IP platform with the accessibility and agility of cloud-focused technologies that NetOps and DevOps teams are using to drive contemporary digital transformation efforts.
In addition to making services more accessible for applications, BIG-IP Cloud Edition also extends the benefits of these services to multiple IT teams. The ability to seamlessly deploy, upgrade, and automate trusted F5 services on a per-application basis better positions NetOps to support business priorities in concert with SecOps and DevOps. With a focus on collaborative operations, the solution promotes instant self-service consumption by app development teams, along with an open application programming interface (API) for deploying services in the data center and multiple cloud environments. Through dedicated dashboards that deliver per-app visibility, analytics, and controls, BIG-IP Cloud Edition simplifies operations while enhancing management and orchestration. Similarly, the solution provides quick self-diagnosis and issue resolution with helpful insight into application performance and health characteristics.
BIG-IP Cloud Edition will be generally available on May 31, 2018.
