F5 debuts traffic manager gear

Computerworld - F5 Networks Inc. today announced three new network hardware devices that expand on the growing market for network traffic management products.
The three products, BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager, BIG-IP Link Controller, and BIG-IP 8400 Platform are available today.
The 8400 provides 10Gbit/sec. of throughput in Layer 4 traffic, also known as the transport layer in the Open Systems Interconnection, said Jason Needham, director of product management at Seattle-based F5. Large companies and service providers could use the device to transport extremely high traffic volumes for load balancing, Secure Sockets Layer transport and compression, he said.
Two networking analysts said the 8400 is big news for global companies seeking to move large amounts of traffic more easily. "Ten-gig networking has taken off in the data center," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc.
Foundry Networks Inc. on Jan. 12 announced two hardware boxes that will compete with the 8400, and both begin shipping next month, said Joel Conover, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc. in Sterling, Va. Cisco Systems Inc. and Radware Ltd. are expected to provide similar products, the analysts said.
The market for network traffic management products is expected to total more than $700 million in 2006, Kerravala said. The 8400 starts at $69,995.
Of the other two F5 products announced today, W.C. Bradley Co. in Columbus, Ga., has been testing the Link Controller for three months, and it expects to deploy two of the Link Controller boxes in about two months, said Shane Sheppard, network infrastructure manager at the outdoor grill manufacturer. Link Controller starts at $14,990.
Bradley is testing the Link Controller to manage load balancing on e-commerce traffic. Bradley has three Internet service provider links, and the Link Controller will help determine which link is the best available to a user, based on up to 10 variables for determining what's best, Sheppard said.
The most important variable set in the Link Controller is to find which link is most available, but Bradley has also set the device to avoid added link costs by moving traffic to prepaid lines when possible instead of a more expensive Digital Subscriber Line 3 link. "This feature works so well that we've never gone above the first bandwidth level. So, in that sense it helps you with cost avoidance."
The Link Controller valuable in optimizing TCP/IP traffic for Bradley, Sheppard said.
Sheppard has been using various F5 products for about three years, and estimated that Bradley has spent about $100,000 in total. When Sheppard started working with F5,he evaluated Foundry, Cisco and Radware, but found F5's technology the best.
The new Link Controller is the first product of its kind at F5 to run the Traffic Management Operating Systems software, which extends some of the features Bradley is using, Sheppard said.
Also released today is the Traffic Manager, which will help IT managers distribute end-user application requests according to business policies and network conditions. It focuses on applications, while the Link Controller focuses on Internet service provider connections in the wide-area network, F5 officials said. The Traffic Manager starts at $26,990.

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