F5 Delivers Enhanced Application Visibility and Management Capabilities for Microsoft’s Dynamic Data Center Initiative
New Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Provides Unparalleled Automation, Provisioning, and Reporting Capabilities to Maximize IT Resource Efficiency
Microsoft Management Summit
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), a global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced new F5 Management PackTM software for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. Available as a software plug-in, the F5 Management Pack enables Microsoft and F5 customers to conveniently monitor and automate responses to changing infrastructure conditions to efficiently allocate dynamic network, application, and server resources.
With F5 and Microsoft solutions working in concert, organizations gain actionable visibility across the entire Application Delivery Networking infrastructure. By giving joint customers essential insight into the performance of network devices, application traffic, and other infrastructure variables, the F5 Management Pack also enables customers to set policies ensuring rapid, automated response to dynamic network conditions.
To support the many organizations currently using Microsoft System Center, the F5 Management Pack will be delivered as a free download via the DevCentralsm website, F5’s global online technical community. Leveraging the expertise of over 40,000 application developers, IT architects, and networking professionals, DevCentral will provide video tutorials, forums, documents, samples, and solution guidance aimed at helping F5 Management Pack users collaborate and get more from their combined deployments of F5 and Microsoft technologies.
Highlights of the F5 Management Pack
As a plug-in to Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007, the F5 Management Pack enables organizations to:
Simplify IT Management through Enhanced Visibility
By monitoring the performance of F5 and Microsoft devices, as well as the surrounding infrastructure, F5 Management Pack helps administrators see a clearer picture of present network and application traffic conditions. F5 Management Pack leverages System Center Operations Manager’s advanced health modeling capabilities and sophisticated reporting structure, allowing administrators to conveniently analyze performance data for trending and forecasting, and enabling them to better plan and budget for IT initiatives.
Adapt to Changing Application and Network Conditions to Improve IT Efficiency
F5 Management Pack works with Systems Center Operations Manager to ensure that content and applications are continually optimized and securely delivered. F5’s PowerShell-enabled iControl® API and the customizable iRules™ scripting language enable System Center to proactively modify network resources to ensure the best end-user experience. By adapting to performance conditions, available application resources, and user demand, the F5 Management Pack helps Microsoft customers realize OpEx savings by reducing the time and personnel necessary to manage application delivery environments.
Support Microsoft’s Vision for a Dynamic, Virtualized Infrastructure
F5 Management Pack supports dynamic provisioning capabilities to bring additional server and application resources online as user demand increases, as well as taking these extended resources offline when demand returns to normal levels. The F5 Management Pack includes capabilities that support an automated, virtualized, and highly efficient data center through interoperability with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Hyper-V, and other Microsoft solutions.
Quotes
“Customers want to have insight into all aspects of their IT operations, and Microsoft System Center delivers this across both their physical and virtual enterprise environments,” said Ryan O’Hara, Director, System Center Product Management, Microsoft. “F5’s System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack will help extend the visibility customers have into their network conditions, optimize application performance for users, and help reduce overall operational costs.”
“With more than 40,000 members and counting, DevCentral provides a global, collaborative environment that is an ideal delivery mechanism for the F5 Management Pack,” said Jeff Browning, Director of Product Management at F5. “Microsoft System Center Operations Manager customers will gain access to a wide range of tutorials, samples, and other resources designed to improve the ways F5 helps optimize their infrastructure. With established projects featuring PowerShell and Visual Studio integration and samples, the Management Pack on DevCentral will dramatically expand how we provide the community with a powerful platform to further customize and automate their joint Microsoft-F5 environments.”
“The ability of Application Delivery Networking devices to make intelligent decisions in how users, applications, and data interact gives administrators the power to sensibly consolidate, virtualize, and provision IT resources,” said Jason Needham, Sr. Director of Product Management at F5. “At a time where administrators are looking to leverage emerging technologies to reduce OpEx and CapEx costs, F5’s management solution portfolio provides crucial network visibility and automated response capabilities to help organizations efficiently address variable Application Delivery Networking demands and best support their organization’s business priorities.” |
