March 19, 2015 – F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced a new version of its intelligent management framework, F5® BIG-IQ™, which operates and organizes security and application delivery services to provide unified, integrated capabilities. This update to BIG-IQ enables centralized management of application delivery and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), facilitating close collaboration between network operations centers and DevOps. These capabilities ultimately enhance efficiency and streamline workflows by allowing network teams to maintain flexible approval processes while freeing them from the task of manually setting individual application delivery policies.

Emmanuel Bonnassie, Executive Vice President of Sales for F5 Asia Pacific, stated, “BIG-IQ is a core pillar of the F5 Synthesis™ architecture, aiming to automate processes and reduce the time spent on manual operations that previously took weeks.” He added, “Many companies are currently entering a phase of establishing appropriate service levels in hybrid infrastructure environments. We are proud to say that BIG-IQ is the only solution among similar ones capable of integrating role-based access control with systems planning configuration changes.”

Product Details

BIG-IQ provides an innovative user interface (UI) and RESTful APIs to enable centralized management of F5 BIG-IP devices and allows for the coordination of F5's local traffic manager, advanced firewall manager, and application security manager solutions. BIG-IQ utilizes iApps® templates to organize Software Defined Application Services™ across local, public, and private clouds, enhancing business agility while eliminating numerous risks associated with individual management point solutions. BIG-IQ provides the capability to integrate F5 solutions with technologies from Cisco, VMware, and OpenStack into a single, unified point.

The main features are as follows:

• Application Delivery Service Management: Enhance agility with software-defined orchestration of application services through role-based centralized management of application delivery functions on the network.

• Application Organization on the Cloud: Extending cloud platform orchestration and management capabilities through third-party developers enhances connectivity and partner integration, while also improving the customer experience through workflows and integration.

• BIG-IP Device Management: Managing Physical and Virtual BIG-IP Devices and Certified Virtual Editions (VE) on a Single Platform

• Security Management: Implement stronger security by simplifying firewall policy management through the centralization of security policy implementation, operation, and management.

• Risk Reduction: Safer change management is possible through a simplified configuration and the elimination of much of the touchpoint management across multiple devices.

Cisco APIC Integration

This BIG-IQ orchestration update, part of a closer integrated technology partnership, is for Cisco® ApplicationsIt is also available on the Policy Infrastructure Controller™ (APIC). By integrating physical and virtual platforms in existing traditional architectures and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environments, BIG-IQ will reduce the learning time for network engineers new to application services. As Cisco’s preferred partner for deploying policy-driven application services on Layers 2–7, F5 enables customers of both companies to significantly reduce operating costs without sacrificing security, availability, or performance. As an extension of programmable software-defined application services within the F5 Synthesis architecture and Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI), the BIG-IQ® solution is the only solution that provides L4–L7 multi-tenant capabilities in the Cisco ACI environment.

Soni Jiandani, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cisco, stated, “F5 Synthesis and Cisco ACI enable the industry’s first integration of BIG-IP appliances with BIG-IQ orchestration systems. Through the joint solution of Cisco ACI and F5, customers have diverse choices based on their preferences, operating models, and business needs. Customers can directly manage F5 BIG-IP appliances and Virtual Editions from the Cisco APIC controller to enable automated L4-L7 service insertion and stitching.” She added, “Customers of both F5 and Cisco can integrate APIC with BIG-IQ to enable APIC plugins based on existing iApps and iRules® configurations in their respective environments.” “The Cisco ACI and F5 portfolio enables the deployment of truly rich applications while protecting customers’ L4-L7 operational models and ensuring multi-tenancy and scalability,” he added.

Availability

The F5 device package dedicated to Cisco APIC can be downloaded for free from downloads.f5.com. For additional product purchase information and availability in specific countries, please contact F5 Korea.

Additional materials

A live demo is scheduled to take place at the F5 booth during the Cisco Live 2015 event in Melbourne, Australia, for four days from March 17 to 20, and additional information can be found below.

• F5 and Cisco's technology alliance

• Cisco APIC Reference Architecture

• BIG-IQ Details and Video

• BIG-IQ Datasheet

• Blog Article: F5 BIG-IP Application-Centric Configuration in Cisco ACI with BIG-IQ

• Demo Video: Maximizing F5 BIG-IP Capacity in Cisco ACI with BIG-IQ