Virtualization services will become more imperative

What are the new trends and technologies that have emerged within the data

center space?



With growing virtualization, there's efficiency in the underlying hardware

requirements. You need less hardware to do the same work. This is one of the

major factors that would be driving the evolution of data centers. Virtualizing

servers not only realize tremendous cost savings, but also have a better

architecture for availability and ongoing maintenance. The next two years will

bring significant change within the context of the data center.

What are the key challenges businesses face today while managing and

securing their data?



The various challenges companies face today can be categorized under six

areas:

• Application security and data integrity
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• User experience and application performance
• Storage growth
• Unified security enforcement and access control
• Managing scale and consolidation

Do you educate customers about new technologies?



Because F5 products can handle such a wide variety of environments, we offer

varoius training and support options to fit the particular situation. With

on-site training and multiple facilities across five continents, we provide

customers with practical experience, so that they can be self-sufficient in

their own network environment.

How well trained are your partners to sell new technologies and solutions

within the data center space?



We have certification programs that are designed to help F5 partner

resellers and their customers. The F5 certification will assure that one has the

technical know-how to recommend, specify, configure, and install F5 products.

The certification programs help individuals and partners provide effective

pre-sales assistance as well as installation and support services. These

programs include coursework, examinations, and performance objectives designed

to give participants a solid technical understanding of the concepts required

for design and implementation.

How do you plan to handle the competition?



We have developed a product/solution portfolio whose functions require an

adaptive internal architecture that is unique to F5 and based on our modular

TMOS, iRules, iControl API, and specialized hardware designs. This internal

architecture enables us to provide the necessary means of integration and rapid

time to market for new application networking solutions. Unlike the vast

majority of our product competitors who are startups, F5 has a solid business

model and balance sheet that, because we're a completely transparent public

company.

What is F5's strategy for the coming months?



Today we have extended our virtualization benefits in the network. Storage

is an adjacent, high-growth market to application delivery driven by the

explosive growth in IT storage capacity as well as escalating management costs.

New methods are needed to allow growth while maintaining control, as the storage

infrastructure is being bombarded and the growth of these same applications in

the enterprise are expected to continue growing for some time.

SUBBALAKSHMI BM



subbalakshmibm@cybermedia.co.in