Integration of F5 and Oracle technologies helps increase user productivity and reduces deployment time and ownership costs
SEATTLE, September 30, 2008 - F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced the availability of its new Application Ready Network (ARN) solution for Siebel. With this announcement, F5 is expanding on the previously announced ARN for Oracle to provide tested and documented deployment, configuration, and optimization guidance for customers using F5 and Oracle’s Siebel CRM applications in concert.
Now Siebel CRM and Oracle® CRM On Demand customers, independent software vendors, and system integrators can more efficiently and confidently deploy and run Siebel CRM. Incorporating F5® application delivery and WAN optimization technologies into their Siebel CRM application delivery infrastructure helps customers optimize the value of existing IT assets and increase efficiency across the network-resulting in a superior experience for administrators and users alike.
"F5’s comprehensive approach to application delivery makes their solutions a good fit for our customers," said Masa Karahashi, VP, CRM Development, Oracle. "Through dedicated research and partnership activities, F5 has put together the resources to enable our joint customers to further enhance their Siebel CRM investments in terms of security, performance, and overall ownership experience."
Benefits of F5’s Application Ready Network for Siebel CRM include:
Up to 3-7x performance increases, resulting in improved user experience - Leveraging F5’s optimization technologies, Siebel CRM users can now experience LAN-like performance over the WAN.
Reduced infrastructure and OpEx cost - F5’s intelligent compression achieves 87 percent bandwidth reductions for Siebel CRM, and can offload up to 70 percent of Siebel server connections-enabling greatly reduced cost.
Drastically reduced deployment cycles - F5 policies and profiles are custom-built for Siebel CRM providing specific configurations that leverage the power of F5® BIG-IP® devices’ SSL offload, caching, and acceleration to streamline Siebel CRM environments. And many BIG-IP device configurations are automated for Siebel CRM, enabling customers to save deployment time and greatly reducing the risk of human error.
"We continue to recommend that organizations select an application delivery vendor that maintains close relationships and collaborates frequently with application providers," said Jon Oltsik, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "By addressing individual characteristics of specific business applications, F5’s Application Ready Networks deliver true application fluency across the data center, LAN, and WAN. With the groundwork laid by F5, joint Siebel CRM customers can look forward to simplified deployments and upgrades, as well as optimized application performance."
"F5’s application-specific expertise and ongoing integration efforts with business solution providers like Oracle continue to enhance the value of our technology within the Application Delivery Networking marketplace," said Jim Ritchings, VP of Business Development at F5. "In preparing the Application Ready Network solution for Siebel CRM, the two companies have worked closely to determine the best practices and ideal configurations for running F5 and Siebel CRM together-resulting in superior deployment benefits and an unparalleled user experience for joint customers."
For more information on F5’s solutions for Oracle’s Siebel CRM, please visit www.f5.com/solutions/applications/oracle/siebel/.
Availability
F5’s Application Ready Network for Siebel CRM is available today, and F5 plans to continue expanding its suite of best practices to achieve optimum network performance for Siebel CRM, Oracle, and other application vendors to further demonstrate the benefits and flexibility of F5’s unique Application Delivery Networking technologies to a growing number of enterprises.
About F5 Networks
F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast, and available for everyone. By adding intelligence and manageability into the network to offload applications and optimize the data storage layer, F5 extends the power of intelligent networking to all levels of application delivery. F5’s extensible architecture intelligently integrates application optimization, protects the application and the network, and delivers application reliability. Over 16,000 organizations and service providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their applications running. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide.
For more information, go to www.f5.com.
Juniper Networks Application Acceleration Platform Completes Validation Testing with Oracle® E-Business Suite
Juniper Networks announced that the company’s WXC™ 590 application acceleration platform has successfully completed validation testing with the Oracle® E-Business Suite 12.0.
Key test results revealed:
- The WXC platform provides robust compression of HTML ,HTTP/HTTPS and Oracle Forms Traffic, reducing payload and improving response time.
- The WXC delivers best-in-class quality of service (QoS), allowing prioritization and bandwidth allocation for mission-critical E-Business Suite applications over non-business critical traffic.
Press Release:
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, September 29, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high‐performance networking, today announced that the company’s WXC™ 590 application acceleration platform has successfully completed validation testing with the Oracle® E‐Business Suite 12.0 to help reduce the effects of WAN latency, network congestion and packet loss, providing distributed enterprises with superior end‐to‐end performance of Oracle applications.
Download the full press release.
I’m not sure I agree with the conclusion of this article regarding the rumors surrounding a Microsoft acquisition of Citrix, but for anyone not familiar with the (often stormy) history between the two corporations then this article is a must read.
The images the article evokes are great, but now I can’t get the image of Lloyd Dobler standing next to his car holding up his boombox while Peter Gabriel blasts out "In Your Eyes" out of my head.
Which is pretty funny if you image Bill Gates playing the role of Lloyd Dobler.
In case you’ve been living under a rock today (or stuck in the data center) there’s a pretty widely spread rumor going around that Microsoft will acquire Citrix - soon.
Doug Brown doesn’t pull any punches regarding the rumored M&A in his latest blog post on the subject, citing a lengthy list of reasons why he thinks he’s right as well as why he might be wrong. Everyone’s voicing their opinion/prediction at this point some giving lengthy reasons just making a swag. Even IDC analyst Abner Germanow is playing the game, suggesting that The Industry Standard make a prediction (if you’re a member you can vote on whether you think they should, or not).
Remember that the last time a rumor surfaced regarding Citrix and an acquisition (earlier this year) it was IBM and Cisco allegedly ready to shell out cash. What’s amusing about that one is that around the same time it was rumored that IBM or Cisco was interested in picking up F5. That’s interesting, because it was the same two companies out shopping in both cases; companies known to acquire almost on a whim (at least that’s how it appears at times, though less so than it does with Google). It should also be noted this is at least the third time this year Citrix has been rumored an acquisition target; Seeking Alpha marked them as a potential target for SAP back in February.
So will Microsoft acquire Citrix? I’m not even going to hazard a guess.
Although I will say that Microsoft historically picks up small companies, or startups. It doesn’t traditionally go after billion dollar companies, a category in which Citrix certainly fits.
Mark Goodman from KEMP Technologies’ has a nice article on application delivery featured at the Data Center Journal.
Mark does a great job of laying on the line the importance of applications and therefore application delivery when he says:
It’s called an application, but what it really represents is an organization’s business and brand.
A former employer used to love to say "we aren’t in the business of IT". I laughed and laughed, because yes, yes they are - and so is everyone today. Without IT and the applications it develops and delivers, most businesses would end up written in Chapter 11 of "Ways to fail".
If there’s one thing to take away from Mark’s article it’s just that: applications are critical, and that means availability is paramount to success and ensuring brand health. Application delivery in today’s world requires more than just an Internet connection, it requires an entire supporting infrastructure to ensure that those applications stay fast, secure, and available.
IT PRO Reviews in the UK has been going like gangbusters lately with reviews of application delivery systems. As there are very few reviews-based publications in the US anymore, that makes these reviews even more valuable and interesting.
Thus far IT PRO has reviewed the latest from Zeus Technologies’ : the ZXTM LB 5, F5’s VIPRION, and ClusterScale’s Nemasys.
What I really like about the ZXTM review is they took a good look at the virtual appliance version. My favorite quote, "Regardless of which version you use, all ZXTMs are managed the same way, using an attractive and easy to use browser based interface." Ain’t that the truth! Anyone who’s configured a ZXTM has to admit it’s both sexy and simple, a winning combination for its target market - and I’d argue in general a good idea.
I would have liked to seen some performance data - specifically a comparison between ZXTM as a virtual appliance and well, as not a virtual appliance - to understand the impact of virtualizing traffic management devices. No one has really dug into the question of what we’re giving up in terms of performance and capacity for the benefit of virtualization, and I am really looking forward to the day when someone lays the argument to rest with real data.
Array Networks Introduces AppVelocity 5200 Application Delivery Controllers with Application Specific Acceleration
Optimizes enterprise platforms for up to 500,000 concurrentSSL Connections with local and global load balancing at Layers 2-7
MILPITAS, CA – September 3, 2008 –Array Networks Inc., a global leader in enterprise secure application delivery, today launched its AppVelocity (APV) 5200 application delivery controllers that supports up to 500,000 concurrent SSL Connections in a compact 2U box. APV 5200 delivers advanced local and global load balancing at Layers 2-7 with built-in application specific acceleration which reduces overall IT infrastructure costs while improving user productivity.
APV 5200 dramatically improves the end-user experience by cutting response time by 50% or more. Caching, compression, and TCP connection multiplexing are optimized for small, dynamic, hot content - making it the ideal platform for delivering Web 2.0 applications. It also provides dual 10 Gigabit interface options and fast CRL support helps SSL certificate processing, and the ability to handle huge certificate revocation lists with low latency.
“Large enterprises are running a large number of applications to support employees, third-parties and customers. Poor performance can easily impact business and revenue opportunities,” said Robin Layland, Analyst at Layland Consulting. “By integrating application optimization as well as access security, APV 5200 enables enterprises to proactively manage networks therefore increasing overall productivity and avoiding performance problems.”
Similar to other products in Array’s APV line, APV 5200 utilizes an environmentally-friendly platform which reduces power and space costs. It uses 60% less power than other solutions, reduces the server footprint by 40% and the network’s bandwidth by 30%, thereby reducing overall data center power use. This results in delivering powerful ROI in six months.
“Today enterprises need a solution for high application acceleration performance with secure access to make the best of their networks,” said Sunil Cherian, vice president of product marketing for Array Networks, “APV 5200 improves the availability, performance and security of enterprise applications and web sites while reducing cost and complexity in the data center.”
APV 5200 provides Certificate Authorities (CA) and client certificate ensuring identity-based access and authorization which is an ideal solution when accessing banking, stock trading and e-commerce applications. APV 5200 provides a new hardware port dedicated for sub-second failover and recovery as well as flexible port configurations of copper or fiber ports. It also integrates extensive access control lists (ACL) and network address translation (NAT).
About Array Networks
Founded in 2000, Array Networks is a global leader in enterprise secure application delivery and universal access solutions for rapidly growing SSL VPN and application acceleration markets. More than 2,500 customers worldwide including enterprises, service providers, government and vertical organizations in healthcare, finance, insurance and education rely on Array to provide anytime, anywhere secure and optimized access. Industry leaders including Deloitte, Red Herring, and Frost and Sullivan have recognized Array as a market and technology leader.
At some point the SMB market has become big business for application delivery. Not only do we have Zeus, Barracuda, KEMP Technologies, CoyotePoint, and Array Networks competing for market share, but we have the loadbalancer.org guys, ClusterScale (admittedly somewhere on the higher end of the SMB market) and we also have jetnexus.
With the increasing number of small to medium sized businesses looking to the benefits of a strong web presence, it should be no surprise that the SMB market is growing quickly.
Everyone has their particular focus in the SMB market: Array and Barracuda are more focused on security, Zeus focuses on application oriented networking and JetNexus appears to be focusing on acceleration and load-balancing.
Availability, performance, security, and scalability are concerns for small businesses, too.
And small businesses often grow up to be big businesses, which is why the SMB market should not be ignored or dismissed.
The announcement is available here as well as links to blogs and podcasts on the acquisition.
Cisco Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire PostPath
PostPath’s Email and Calendaring Software to Enhance Cisco’s WebEx Collaboration Platform
SAN JOSE, Calif. - August 27, 2008 - Building upon its commitment to provide a comprehensive collaboration portfolio, Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately held PostPath, Inc., a provider of innovative email and calendaring software. Based in Mountain View, Calif. with additional development operations in Sofia, Bulgaria, PostPath will enhance the existing email and calendaring capabilities of Cisco’s WebEx Connect collaboration platform.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective, adaptive collaboration is critical to creating and sustaining a competitive advantage. With PostPath’s software, Cisco will extend the e-mail and calendar functionality of its flexible software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based collaborative platform that includes instant messaging, voice, video, data, document management and Web 2.0 applications. This combination will enable customers to use collaboration to accelerate business processes, within and between businesses.
"The acquisition of PostPath complements our strategy to develop an integrated collaboration platform designed for how we work today and into the future, providing real productivity gains and a more satisfying user experience", said Doug Dennerline, Cisco senior vice president, Collaboration Software Group. "Our ‘cloud-based’ delivery model offers our customers rapid deployment and compelling economics."
PostPath offers a Linux-based e-mail, calendaring and collaboration solution. It is interoperable with many other e-mail solutions and provides a browser-independent AJAX Web client. In addition, PostPath’s software is compatible with a number of mobile clients.
PostPath’s software is highly secure and scalable, and it incorporates innovative Web 2.0 architectures to meet the requirements of large enterprises and small businesses alike to provide Cisco customers with a next-generation user experience.
The PostPath acquisition exemplifies Cisco’s "build, buy, and partner" innovation strategy to move quickly into new markets and capture key market transitions. In addition to internal software innovations, Cisco actively employs investments in, and acquisitions of, other companies to support its software strategy; recent purchases include industry leaders WebEx, IronPort and Securent.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $215 million in exchange for all shares of PostPath. The transaction will be accounted for in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in Cisco’s first quarter of fiscal year 2009. Upon completion of the acquisition, PostPath employees will become part of the Cisco Collaboration Software Group (CSG). CSG is part of the recently established Software Group, consisting of Cisco’s major software businesses; including the IOS network operating system, network and service management, Unified Communications solutions, policy management, and SaaS offerings.
About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
# # #
Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.
The March of Dimes called me a few weeks back. Seems someone turned me in for "having too much fun at work." Guilty as charged! Of course I was turned in so I could be "arrested" and raise some money for their work with babies.
The March of Dimes does a lot of research into treatment, training, and therapies that help save premature babies and they’re pretty vocal about it. What they don’t often mention is that this same training and research helps full term babies who happen to suffer from anything from jaundice (pretty common) to meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) (less common) that requires a stay in the NICU.
Many of you know that Don and I had a baby boy this year. When he was born in January (on time and full term) he suffered from severe MAS and landed in the local NICU for the first three weeks of his life. The first week was terrifying because he wasn’t responding well to early treatment and every step took him closer to being transferred to a children’s hospital for ECMO (essentially a heart-lung machine used for long periods of time). His lungs were badly damaged, and it took a lot of dedication and hard work on the part of the doctors and nurses at the NICU to get him stable enough to be able to breathe on his own again. He was one of the unlucky 20% of full term babies that aspirate meconium that become one of the 5% of babies that are seriously impacted by that aspiration.
Much of the treatment for MAS, including surfactant therapy, is supported and researched by March of Dimes. It’s a traditional treatment that helps premature babies with respiratory issues but it can also help full term babies when things go wrong. Thanks to that NICU and research by the March of Dimes, our youngest is a healthy, normal 7 month old today.
Many of you don’t know that in June we became grandparents, over a month earlier than we 
expected. Our granddaughter was 6 weeks premature, but thanks to that same NICU and research she was home in less than a week and is now healthy as well. Tiny like a pixie-fairy, but healthy.
So when the March of Dimes wanted to "jail" me for their traditional "Jail and Bail" fundraiser in October, I said "you bet". How could I not? In the space of 6 months their research and the training they do has definitely impacted my life - very, very positively.
If you feel so inclined, you can help me raise bail to get out of jail and support the March of Dimes in their efforts to continue research into helping babies.
If you do, thank you! If you don’t, thanks for reading and maybe learning something you didn’t know before.
