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Technology Stocks : F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (823)	4/26/2000 1:33:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 1801

"F5 Networks Inc.'s new product incorporates an SSL accelerator into its flagship load balancer, the Big-IP Controller. F5 earlier this month said it is shipping its Big-IP SSL Accelerator as a plug-in card. The card saves IT managers money, Firstbrook said, because Big-IP provides centralized management of SSL certificates and supports all commercial servers, eliminating the cost of installing and managing more software or hardware on each Web server. "Putting the card into the load balancer means IT managers don't need a card in every one of their Web servers," said Steve Goldman, senior vice president of sales, marketing and services at F5. While the new SSL accelerator feature is designed specifically to enhance speed and traffic management for secure online transactions, the Big-IP product card can also handle cookie persistence. Cookie persistence ensures users starting a transaction on one server will be "glued" to that same server throughout, eliminating the problem of dropped shopping carts. Cookies also allow e-businesses to provide personalized service to customers based on buying habits. "But because SSL traffic is encrypted, cookies usually cannot be seen. With Big-IP, networks can see the identity of users coming in. SSL traffic and cookies can be handled in parallel-an elusive feature up until now," Goldman said. The Big-IP SSL Accelerator supports 200 SSL connections per second or up to 17 million transactions per day. The only other product in the market that does SSL acceleration is the E-Commerce Accelerator from Intel. An offshoot of Intel's acquisition of IPivot last fall, the device is a standalone appliance. Firstbrook said IT managers might prefer to simply plug a card into an existing load-balancing device rather than add another special-purpose appliance to the network. This concept follows the strategy F5 formed two months ago of adding functionality to its traffic-management products. "F5 outlined its plans for SSL in its road-map strategy-now it has delivered," said Valerie O'Connell, managing director of systems and network management at The Aberdeen Group. "Beyond the welcomed functionality is the fact that F5 is keeping its promises."