Templates encode application intelligence into pre-configured policies spanning a variety of F5 application delivery modules such as BIG-IP WebAccelerator and BIG-IP ASM as well as the core solution, BIG-IP® Local Traffic Manager™ (LTM), requiring very little guidance from administrators in order to optimize BIG-IP v10 for the secure, reliable delivery of these applications.

BIG-IP v10 continues to improve on F5’s flexible, intelligent network-side scripting technology, iRules™, in order to provide an adaptable, programmable method of extending the intelligence of the unified platform for custom solutions.

There is no single prescriptive architecture followed by every organization, which necessarily means that every organizational environment is unique. No single Application Delivery Networking solution could hope to address all the issues that might arise from such diversity, requiring instead that a flexible, intelligent method of extending the security and optimization features be available. iRules fulfills that role and realizes the vision of an adaptable application delivery infrastructure by providing the means by which the core application delivery platform can adapt to any environment and changes in that environment over time.

This adaptability is extended with support for new protocols like SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and an increased awareness of traditional web applications that provides additional capabilities to manipulate, transform, and secure applications at the edge of the network. The ability to inspect and manipulate application data at the edge of the network is paramount to centralizing security and implementing agile solutions that deal with unanticipated changes in the environment, applications, users, and network.

Summary
With trends pointing toward consolidation and cloud computing, the need for an adaptable, efficient application delivery infrastructure is more important than it has ever been. F5 recognizes the benefits to a unified, consolidated Application Delivery Networking solution and continues its push toward providing a single, integrated platform with BIG-IP v10.

The introduction of WAN Application Delivery Services onto the core BIG-IP platform unifies system management as well as traffic management and reduces the number of devices and management touch-points required to ensure the fast, secure, reliable delivery of applications across multiple network environments.

The enhancements and new features available in BIG-IP v10 continue to deliver on F5’s vision of a unified Application Delivery Networking solution. The move toward an adaptable dynamic infrastructure being driven by financial and emerging technology pressures cannot be achieved without many of the innovative new features available in BIG-IP v10.

By providing a unified Application Delivery Networking platform, F5 BIG-IP offers the ability for organizations to adopt a single platform for all its application delivery needs. Adopting an organizational standard for application delivery can reduce management and administrative costs and improve the ability of the organization to migrate smoothly from traditional to emerging application architectures, and address the unforeseen issues that always arise in the wake of the introduction of new initiatives.

When the dust settles from the latest explosion two things will be very clear: a plethora of new problems have arisen along with the technology, and BIG-IP v10 has what it takes to solve them.

The author is technical marketing manager for application services at F5 Networks.