The recent F5 Networks Forum held in Johannesburg saw an excellent turnout, as delegates converged in Sandton to gain exposure to F5’s specialist thinking on application delivery networking technology, as well as the security and performance of servers, data storage devices, and other network and cloud resources. On the day,
Networks Unlimited has been was awarded the F5 Distributor of the Year Award.
Networks Unlimited has been an F5 Networks distributor since July 2014, and this year marks the first time that the company has been awarded this accolade.
Anton Jacobsz, MD of Networks Unlimited, says the company is delighted to be awarded the honour. “I believe that what helped us to win the accolade is the fact that we are a true value added distributor, and as a team, we have a very real alignment across vendor and partner focus through our marketing initiatives, partner engagement, quarterly business reviews and planning. This came together with excellent growth during this last financial year.”
Networks Unlimited director and co-founder Craig Copeland adds: “Being able to understand value-added distribution, but at the same time being flexible enough to provide quick turn-around into the channel and therefore allowing for correct execution, also played an important role in this acknowledgement. We also ensure that our value-add is adopted by the channel partner when it comes to partner enablement and business planning around the go-to-market messaging.”
The recent F5 Forum Johannesburg 2018 gave delegates insight into topics such as how F5 helps customers with their journey to the cloud (public, private and hybrid), as well as discussing innovations around application security, including real time encryption, centralised management and analytics. F5 experts addressed the latest issues facing today’s business by providing demos and interactive presentations, and break-out sessions provided further opportunities to delve deeper into specific areas of F5’s cloud or security portfolios.
Diego Arrabal, F5 vice-president: Middle East, Turkey and Africa, noted that the digital transformation of the modern world has brought implications for both one’s personal and business life. In this vein, he said, F5 noted predictions for 2018, such as increasing numbers of customers choosing to use more than one cloud offering; escalating security breaches, with a significant number of these at the application layer; greater automation; more containerised solutions, bringing their advantages and challenges; and a significant increase in the Internet of Things (IoT), bringing serious challenges and a need for security and scalability.
Simon McCullough, F5 channel partner manager, added that the digital economy places applications at the centre of organisations, allowing employees to be more productive but simultaneously adding in complexities and causing a loss of control of the environment from a security perspective. With increased complexity comes increased risk, and data is the sought-after prize of cyber-attackers, with apps being the gateway to the data.