F5 Availability in the AWS GovCloud Marketplace!

It’s no secret that security is the leading concern for the majority of public cloud users, but for some organizations and government agencies, it is even more paramount. For these groups, highly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements meant that in its infancy, the AWS cloud (or any other cloud for that matter) simply wasn’t a viable option for hosting their applications – that is until the release of the first AWS GovCloud (US) region back in 2011.

For those of you unfamiliar with AWS GovCloud and the purpose it serves, it essentially allows organizations who are responsible for highly sensitive data and IT workloads to proceed in concert with federal, state and local government compliance requirements (such as FedRAMP, ITAR and HIPAA) by providing an isolated and dedicated region of AWS infrastructure to securely deploy applications. This enables the IT organizations within these agencies to reap the same benefits of public cloud computing as all other AWS users: enhanced agility and scalability, and greater alignment of costs-to-usage within an OpEx budget model.

This is all well and good, but applications deployed in the AWS GovCloud are fundamentally similar to those found in other AWS regions, in that they still require the same advanced application delivery and security services to perform optimally. In light of this, F5 extensively tested and verified the BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) for use in AWS GovCloud (US) regions, meaning users have been able to download BIG-IP VE images for deployment in the AWS GovCloud for some time now.

Very recently, however, AWS announced the availability of a marketplace to accompany its GovCloud (US) region, providing customers with an online store in which to discover, purchase and install 3rd party software specifically vetted to ensure it meets the needs of their highly regulated workloads… and as one of the market pacesetters for public cloud integrations, F5 is delighted to announce the immediate availability of its application services in this new marketplace – making it fasterand easier for AWS GovCloud users to employ F5 solutions.

F5’s bottom line value proposition when it comes to anything ‘cloudy’ boils down to the consistency of application services across all hybrid cloud environments; with this development in F5’s public cloud story solidifying that value even further. Since the BIG-IP VEs available in this new AWS marketplace are exactly equivalent in capabilities and feature set with all other physical and virtual BIG-IP devices, it’s now even easier for government agencies and organizations to extend operations to the AWS cloud with the same application services and security policies they rely on today. Whether it be intelligent traffic management, advanced application protection or secure application access, all BIG-IP services available for on-premises, private cloud, public cloud and SaaS applications can now be rapidly instantiated in the AWS GovCloud thanks to this new marketplace integration.

On a final security-related note, F5’s WAF solution (BIG-IP ASM) has just been recognized as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Application Firewalls. And with the primary purpose of AWS GovCloud revolving around significantly enhanced security, what better way to architect and build out app and data protection than by combining the most comprehensive WAF solution on the market with one of the securest environments in the public cloud space.

For more information, check out F5 in the AWS GovCloud Marketplace, or you can read more about migrating applications to AWS in this white paper.