F5 Networks is accelerating its application delivery controller (ADC) technology this week with a new flagship device release.
The new Viprion 4480 chassis will replace the Viprion 4400 as the top of the line device from F5. The 4480 chassis is a modular platform that will be paired with the new 4300 blade as part of a complete solution. According to F5, the new solutions can deliver as much as 320 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of Layer4 throughput and up to 80 Gbps of SSL throughput.
The Viprion platform is different than F5’s BIG-IP boxes in terms of modular scalability. Henry Tam, product marketing manager at F5 explained to EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet the Viprion platform delivers true pay as you grow scalability. Enterprises can start with one blade then as demands require, they can add one more blade to get double the performance, with zero reconfiguration of the network or applications.
The additional scale the Viprion 4480 solution delivers can be useful for service provider and large enterprise deployments that have multiple point solutions to support NAT, IPv6, DNS, AAA, optimization, traffic steering, and load balancing services.
“With VIPRION, service providers realize cost savings and reduced complexity by consolidating these core IP infrastructure services to simplify operations,” Tam said. “Another example would be large enterprise knows it will be under potentially large scale DOS attack — with F5’s ICSA certified datacenter firewall on VIPRON 4480 platform, they can withstand the largest attacks and protect their critical applications by easily adding additional blades.”
While ADCs were once thought of as just load balancers, F5 has pushed the definition and the technology significantly further in recent years. In January of this year, F5 officially got their traffic management operating system (TMOS) that powers both the BIG-IP and Viprion products, certified as a firewall by testing vendor ICSA Labs.
Overall, Tam noted that F5 customers are looking for a holistic approach to application deployment and management that doesn’t add to the stress and complexity of their infrastructure.
“With virtualization and cloud computing, customers need a flexible, agile ADC infrastructure that enables a dynamic data center,” Tam said.
It’s a message that is resonating with F5 customers. During F5’s first quarter fiscal 2012 earnings call, CEO John McAdam said sales of the entire Viprion product family almost tripled on a year-over-year basis. He also cited the Viprion platform as being key driver for the growth of the company overall.
Thanks in part to the Viprion’s strong showing, a January report from Infonetics Research, ranked F5 as the No. 2 data center networking vendor ahead of HP but behind Cisco.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
