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Application delivery specialist F5 Networks believes its joint support for the enterprise application future through its partnership with US-based technology giant Cisco, enables information technology to be deployed faster, as well as optimises key business applications.
F5 business development senior VP Calvin Rowland told Engineering News Online at this year’s Cisco Live conference in San Diego, in the US, that the catalyst for the partnership was Cisco’s announcement of its Application Centric Infrastructure strategy and its software-defined networking (SDN) orchestration technology – Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC).
Rowland revealed that the partnership delivered customer value “by embracing SDN technology and deploying more applications in a more dynamic way, but without the need for additional human capital.”
The F5 device package extended the capabilities of APIC so that it could also be used to manage and configure F5's layer four to seven solutions.
Rowland said the partnership “also just made good business sense”. F5’s market share was 50% and the company’s affinity with Cisco was even greater – at about 70% – so the demographic of the types of customers F5 serviced had a great affinity with one another.
“It was obvious that it was appropriate to collaborate with Cisco, doing genuine technology integration, to take care of our customers and the several new customers that we might not have otherwise known if we hadn’t gone out and tested the data,” he said.
He described the partnership as a classic co-selling technology alliance where the two companies met in the channel; had resources, product development, product management and alliances; and then derived a road map of feature functionality on which both parties worked to develop the technology.
Rowland assured, however, that a full takeover by Cisco was not anticipated. “While we have a fiduciary responsibility to consider something if it’s compelling, I am personally not anticipating [an acquisition].”
Rowland also revealed that Cisco Live 2015, for which F5 was an emerald sponsor, was the platform to announce the company’s integration plans for Intercloud – a global network of clouds being established by Cisco and its partners.
“We’re collaborating with Intercloud to ensure that customers that want to consume the virtual instances of our products within the Intercloud construct are able to do so.”
He said one of the main challenges facing the fast-evolving industry was the requirement of new business models that made it easier for people to continue using F5’s services.
“Not only have we cleverly and effectively navigated those challenges, it’s truly incremental business for us because we’re getting some new business that we would otherwise not have had access to. That’s how we know we’re hitting our stride,” noted Rowland.