F5 Networks has announced its new F5 Ready programme that makes it easier for customers to use F5 solutions in the cloud environment of their choice.
F5 Ready serves to verify that F5’s software-based solutions support a broad array of cloud providers worldwide, making the agility, efficiency and cost savings of cloud accessible to more organisations. With the introduction of this global program, customers can better ensure the security, performance and availability of applications in these cloud environments.
F5 Ready promotes interoperability and resource efficiency, aiding the industry’s migration of applications and services into private, public and hybrid cloud environments. The program verifies F5 BIG-IP virtual edition compatibility with a growing list of public cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bluelock, BT, Cisco Intercloud, Datacom, Dimension Data, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, SingleHop, Skytap, and VMware vCloud Air. F5 Ready will continue to add cloud providers from around the globe and across industries to best serve the diverse needs of customers worldwide.
Different application deployments have different licensing needs–whether organisations are testing a few apps or deploying hundreds into production. To align with the ways customers are adopting cloud, the F5 Ready program offers more choice and budget flexibility with a broad set of cloud-optimised consumption models:
* Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL) is portable, making it easy to extend existing BIG-IP virtual edition investments to and across cloud environments.
* The F5 Cloud Licensing Program enables utility (pay-as-you-go) billing and annual subscriptions to support temporary deployments (like app development and testing) or for customers who prefer an OpEx model.
* F5 Volume Licensing Subscription is a subscription licensing option for volume deployments, offering cost savings of up to 67% with BIG-IP virtual editions.
F5 will continue expanding its efforts to support more cloud providers and ensure the latest F5 BIG-IP offerings are verified and available on-demand. The program launches with support for BIG-IP version 11.5.1, and F5 will provide verification for the forthcoming BIG-IP 12.0 code release upon availability.
This program enables organisations to more easily leverage the latest BIG-IP enhancements on-demand, in order to best meet their respective needs. Additionally, F5 Ready assures that customers can extend and use F5’s programmable technologies like iApps and iRules in cloud environments.
“Organisations going to the cloud want to know that they don’t have to give up their valuable application services to get there,” said Alex Rublowsky, senior director: licensing business models at F5. “Through the F5 Ready program, customers can keep their trusted security, availability and acceleration services–even as they evaluate cloud service providers, combine technologies from multiple vendors, and look to scale additional application resources to public cloud environments.”
