F5 and EMC Speed Deployment of Cloud Services

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced enhancements to its F5^® ARX^® Cloud Extender^™ solutions that add EMC Atmos to its growing list of supported cloud storage providers and object storage platforms. Working in concert with F5 ARX file virtualization solutions, ARX Cloud Extender enables data to flow automatically, securely, and non-disruptively from file-based storage platforms to EMC Atmos, accelerating both public and private cloud deployments so organizations can more quickly realize the benefits of cloud storage.

“The integration of F5 ARX Cloud Extender and EMC Atmos allows users to seamlessly bridge their onsite and cloud-based file storage environments”

With this solution, organizations are not required to change their current storage architecture or strategy to integrate object-based storage solutions like Atmos. F5’s ARX and Cloud Extender solutions provide enterprises with an easy way to automatically identify and move appropriate files to cloud architectures based on the Atmos platform. The combined solution presents a unified view of data stored across local file storage and remote object storage in a private or public cloud.

“The integration of F5 ARX Cloud Extender and EMC Atmos allows users to seamlessly bridge their onsite and cloud-based file storage environments,” said Terri McClure, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Users should be able to realize significant operational benefits by leveraging simple policies to store appropriate, less active data to the cloud while keeping critical or sensitive data within the four walls of IT.”

F5 ARX solutions now support a broad array of EMC products aimed at addressing the challenges associated with burgeoning data growth, including Atmos, Celerra, Data Domain, and Isilon. Companies worldwide are effectively managing rapid data growth by using F5 ARX devices to virtualize file-based storage assets, maximizing their efficiency, simplifying overall data management, and reducing operational expenses.

F5’s interoperability with the EMC product portfolio is on display this week at EMC World 2011, booth #911, in Las Vegas. F5 experts will be conducting regularly scheduled demonstrations of ARX and Cloud Extender, highlighting intelligent storage tiering policies that move data between all of the supported EMC platforms.

“Cloud storage has tremendous potential to address many of today’s storage challenges, but as with any new technology, organizations need to assess how to most effectively integrate it into their existing processes,” said Kathleen Ferraro, VP of Product Management and Product Marketing at F5. “Care must be taken to minimize risk and disruption, and to clearly identify data sets and workloads for which the cloud model is most appropriate at this point in its evolution. Our ARX and Cloud Extender solutions are designed to ease this transition, automating the classification and movement of data to the cloud and making deployment seamless.”

“EMC is committed to delivering innovative storage solutions that address the growing needs of our partners seeking to leverage cloud infrastructure,” said Mike Feinberg, General Manager and SVP of EMC Cloud Infrastructure Group. “We believe this is an opportunity and approach that delivers financial and functional benefits to both our partners and the customers they serve. By making our cloud infrastructure accessible and allowing easy API integration, we enable our partners to respond to customers’ fast growing demand for cloud-based solutions with greater scalability, elasticity, and lower costs. We are pleased to work with F5 to embrace and deliver these benefits to our joint customers.”

Availability

F5’s ARX Cloud Extender for EMC Atmos is available for evaluation immediately.

Additional Resources

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks, Inc., the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), helps the world’s largest enterprises and service providers realize the full value of virtualization, cloud computing, and on-demand IT. F5^® solutions help integrate disparate technologies to provide greater control of the infrastructure, improve application delivery and data management, and give users seamless, secure, and accelerated access to applications from their corporate desktops and smart devices. An open architectural framework enables F5 customers to apply business policies at “strategic points of control” across the IT infrastructure and into the public cloud. F5 products give customers the agility they need to align IT with changing business conditions, deploy scalable solutions on demand, and manage mobile access to data and services. Enterprises, service and cloud providers, and leading online companies worldwide rely on F5 to optimize their IT investments and drive business forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

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F5, ARX, and Cloud Extender are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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.