Mobile World Congress 2015: F5 to Showcase NFV Solutions that Power and Secure Service Provider Networks

Enabling scalable and secure connectivity, optimized service delivery, and profitable new services

SEATTLE – F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) announced today its focus areas at Mobile World Congress (MWC), taking place in Barcelona, Spain from March 2–5. At the event, F5 will demonstrate how its solution portfolio helps service providers maximize the opportunities created by exponential increases in connected devices, applications, and broadband data usage.

With a projected 50 billion connected devices by 2020 (Cisco/Intel)—or seven devices for each person on the planet—securing and managing the Internet of Things (IoT) will become even more crucial. Operators will need to scale networks to handle rapid growth of data traffic and corresponding signaling traffic increases. They will also need to offer secure connectivity to support new service and business models.

The F5 Synthesis™ architecture supports the service provider ecosystem with carrier-grade solutions around intelligent traffic management, Diameter and signaling traffic management, multi-layer security, and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for secure, dynamic, and tight network control. These solutions enable operators to evolve their networks cost-effectively, ensuring optimized network services and enhanced Quality of Experience (QoE) for subscribers—while still driving new revenues.

F5 is the only vendor to provide flexibility at the network, control, and application levels, enabling deep service customization that can be monetized.

F5 at MWC: Optimize Your Network. Monetize New Services. Secure Every Layer. 

Visit F5 in Hall 5, Booth G11 at Mobile World Congress. Technology demonstrations will be available on demand at F5’s booth throughout the event, with topics including:

• Network Functions Virtualization – F5’s broad portfolio of virtual solutions support NFV initiatives, with technologies such as Diameter signaling, DNS, and carrier-class firewalls in field trials with tier-one carriers worldwide.
   
• Multi-Layer and Multi-Domain Security – F5 technologies ensure end-to-end security for rapidly increasing threat vectors—for devices, the network, and applications.
   
• Network Simplification – F5 offerings simplify and optimize network services for TCO reduction and enhance user QoE. Widely deployed services by Cisco and F5—demonstrated at Intel’s Hall 3, Booth D30 location at MWC—illustrate how dynamic service chains can easily be constructed using Network Services Headers (NSH).
   
• Simple, Secure Mobile App Connectivity – F5 partners with Google™ to enable secure VPN access for Android™ 5.0 (Lollipop), which can be applied to specific apps or the entire work profile as part of Android for Work. F5 also partners with market-leading Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers, including AirWatch® by VMware (exhibiting at Mobile World Congress in Hall 3, Booth D10), to enable seamless, automated VPN provisioning and secure, private connectivity for mobile apps with differentiated access based on dynamic, contextual policies.
   
• New Revenue-Generating Services – Diameter, SIP, and DNS signaling solutions enable new revenue streams, including Voice over LTE (VoLTE), WiFi Offloading, and LTE Roaming.

Supporting Quotes

“NFV-enabled elastic network infrastructure is essential for rapid services deployment and scaling on demand. NTT is pleased to partner with F5 to deliver NFV-based solutions via F5’s industry-leading virtual editions and NTT’s global infrastructure.”

Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, VP, NTT i3

“For the Internet of Things to function and grow, it requires the capabilities NFV provides to enable services that the IoT can interact with. Partners like F5 are a critical part of the NFV ecosystem that will make it possible for carriers to improve the IoT experience for businesses and consumers.”

Werner Schaefer, VP, Network Functions Virtualization, Hewlett-Packard

“Openness, programmability, and orchestration are key to realizing NFV to improve service velocity. As a member of our ecosystem, we are happy to partner with F5 to validate NFV solutions and by leveraging F5’s intelligent traffic management and dynamic security solutions that empower the Internet of Things.”

Ron Haberman, VP/GM, CloudBand Business Unit, Alcatel-Lucent

“We look forward to showcasing AirWatch by VMware and F5’s joint functionality at Mobile World Congress. Technology from AirWatch, the leading EMM and mobile security provider, combines with F5’s secure identity and access management to allow mutual customers to enable seamless VPN provisioning and secure access per-app, without user intervention. This can safeguard sensitive corporate data and personal information, protecting devices, networks, applications, and resources while increasing usability and productivity.”

Erik Frieberg, VP, End-User Computing, VMware

“In our view, F5 was the first in the industry to focus on NFV for Layer 4 through Layer 7 services across the data, signaling, and application planes—with the aim of helping providers with flexible scaling and rapid service introductions.”

Michael Howard, Principal Analyst, IHS-Infonetics Research

“Mobile operators are evolving to support the staggering number of devices that will eventually be connected to the Internet of Things, and to handle expanding data consumption demands. At the same time, they are transforming to more virtualized, software-driven, and cloud-based infrastructures to improve on efficiency, scale, and pace of innovation. F5 has innovated to help operators by embracing virtualization for the key elements of its portfolio, and by enabling its solutions across a wide range of service automation frameworks. F5 is proving it can be an enabler of application delivery in a broad array of operator environments.”

Paul Parker-Johnson, Practice Lead, Cloud and Virtual System Infrastructures, ACG Research

“F5’s ‘optimize, secure, and monetize’ approach and solutions address service providers’ multi-technology, multi-vendor network complexity challenges through: interoperability with different network protocols and signaling, context-aware capabilities and traffic management, and an end-to-end secure service delivery architecture. The carrier-grade NFV versions of its solutions bolster its support for service providers moving toward a virtualized next generation network.”

Glen Ragoonanan, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason

“New mobility ecosystems characterized by network-connected electronic devices, the rise of the Internet of Things, and the industry shift towards Network Functions Virtualization further complicate the LTE security landscape. F5’s mission is to secure devices, users, networks, and applications in these advanced scenarios.”

Dr. Mallik Tatipamula, VP, Service Provider and Cloud Solutions, F5

Availability

The F5 solutions referenced in this announcement are available today. Contact your local F5 sales office for availability in specific countries.

About F5

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) makes apps go faster, smarter, and safer for the world’s largest businesses, service providers, governments, and consumer brands. F5 delivers cloud and security solutions that enable organizations to embrace the application infrastructure they choose without sacrificing speed and control. For more information, go to f5.com. You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technologies.

F5, F5 Synthesis, and DevCentral 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.

Android and Google are trademarks of Google Inc.

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