Company:F5 Networks

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Short description: American application and cybersecurity company
F5 Networks, Inc.
F5
TypePublic company
IndustryTechnology
PredecessorF5 Labs
FoundedFebruary 26, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-02-26)
HeadquartersSeattle, Washington, U.S.
Key people
François Locoh-Donou (President and CEO)
ProductsNetworking
Revenue
  • US$ 2,161.407 million (2018)[1]
  • Increase US$ 2,090.041 million (2017) [2]
  • US$ 590.899 million (2018)[1]
  • IncreaseUS$ 563.956 million (2017)[2]
  • US$ 453.689 million (2018)[1]
  • IncreaseUS$ 420.761 million (2017)[2]
Total assets
  • US$ 2,605.476 million (2018)[1]
  • IncreaseUS$ 2,476.489 million (2017)[2]
Total equity
  • US$ 1,285.492 million (2018)[1]
  • IncreaseUS$ 1,229.392 million (2017)[2]
Number of employees
5,700 (2021)
Website{{{1}}}

F5 Networks, Inc. is an American company that specializes in application delivery networking (ADN), application availability & performance, multi-cloud management, application security, network security, access & authorization and online fraud prevention.

F5 is headquartered in Seattle, Washington in F5 Tower, with an additional 75 offices[3] in 43 countries[3] focusing on sales, support, development, manufacturing, and administrative jobs. Notable office locations include Spokane, Washington; New York City ; Boulder, Colorado; London, England; San Jose, California; and San Francisco .[3]

F5's originally offered application delivery controller (ADC) technology,[4] but expanded into application layer, automation, multi-cloud, and security services. As ransomware, data leaks, DDoS, and other attacks on businesses of all sizes are arising, companies such as F5 have continued to reinvent themselves.[5] While the majority of F5's revenue continues to be attributed to their hardware products such as the BIG-IP iSeries chassis systems, the company has begun to offer additional modules on their proprietary operating system, TMOS (Traffic Management Operating System.) [6] These modules are listed below and include, but are not limited to, Local Traffic Manager (LTM), Advanced Web Application Firewall (AWAF), DNS (previously named GTM), and Access Policy Manager (APM). These offer organizations running the BIG-IP the ability to deploy load balancing, Layer 7 application firewalls, single sign-on (for Azure AD, Active Directory, LDAP, and Okta), as well as enterprise-level VPNs. While the BIG-IP was traditionally a hardware product, F5 now offers it as a virtual machine, which they have branded as the BIG-IP Virtual Edition. The BIG-IP Virtual Edition is cloud agnostic and can be deployed on-premises or in a public or hybrid cloud.

F5's customers include Microsoft, Oracle, Alaska Airlines, and Facebook.[7]

Corporate history

F5 Inc., originally named "F5 Labs"[8] and formerly branded "F5 Networks, Inc." was established in 1996.[9] Currently the company's public facing branding[10] generally presents the company as just "F5."

In 1997, F5 launched its first product,[11] a load balancer called BIG-IP. BIG-IP served the purpose of reallocating server traffic away from overloaded servers. In June 1999, the company had its initial public offering and was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange with symbol FFIV.[12]

In 2017, François Locoh-Donou replaced John McAdam as president and CEO.[13] Later in 2017, F5 launched a dedicated site and organization focused on gathering global threat intelligence data, analyzing application threats, and publishing related findings, dubbed “F5 Labs” in a nod to the company's history. The team continues to research application threats and publish findings every week. On May 3, 2017, F5 announced[14] that it would move from its longtime headquarters on the waterfront near Seattle Center to a downtown Seattle skyscraper that will be called F5 Tower. The move occurred in early 2019.

Notable F5 employees include Igor Sysoev, the author of Nginx.

Products and services offered by F5 are used by 48 of the Fortune 50[3] rely on F5 for load balancing, Layer 7 application security, and API management.

Product Divisions

BIG-IP

F5's BIG-IP product family comprises hardware, modularized software, and virtual appliances that run the F5 TMOS operating system.[15][16] Depending on the appliance selected, one or more BIG-IP product modules can be added.

Offerings include:

  • BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM): Local load balancing with caching, compression and tcp acceleration, based on a full-proxy architecture.
  • BIG-IP DNS: An intelligent global site load balancing (GSLB) and authoritative DNS server. Distributes DNS and application requests based on user, network, and cloud performance conditions.
  • BIGIP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM): On-premises DDoS protection and data center firewall .
  • BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM): Provides access control and authentication for HTTP and HTTPS applications.
  • Advanced WAF: An advanced web application firewall with cutting-edge technology.
  • Container Ingress Service (CIS): Provides automation, orchestration, and networking services for container deployments.
  • IP Intelligence (IPI): Blocking known bad IP addresses, prevention of phishing attacks and botnets.
  • BIG-IQ: a framework for managing BIG-IP devices and application services, irrespective of their form factors (hardware, software or cloud) or deployment model (on-premises, private/public cloud or hybrid). BIG-IQ supports integration with other ecosystem participants such as public cloud providers, and orchestration engines through cloud connectors and through a set of open RESTful APIs. BIG-IQ uses a multi-tenant approach to management. This allows organizations to move closer to IT as a Service without concern that it might affect the stability or security of the services fabric.[24]

BIG-IP history

On September 7, 2004, F5 Networks released version 9.0 of the BIG-IP software in addition to appliances to run the software. Version 9.0 also marked the introduction of the company's TMOS architecture,[17] with significant enhancements including:

  • Moved from BSD to Linux to handle system management functions (disks, logging, bootup, console access, etc.)
  • Creation of a Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to directly talk to the networking hardware and handle all network activities.[16][18][19]
  • Creation of the standard full-proxy mode, which fully terminates network connections at the BIG-IP and establishes new connections between the BIG-IP and the member servers in a pool. This allows for optimum TCP stacks on both sides as well as the complete ability to modify traffic in either direction.

NGINX

In 2019, F5 acquired NGINX, the company responsible for the widely used open-source web server software, for $670 million.[20] The company supports the open source software as well as commercial versions of the software.

Shape Security

In 2020, F5 acquired Shape Security, an artificial intelligence-based bot detection company, for $1 billion.[21] It also sells products to protect applications against fraud.[22]

Silverline

Silverline is a cloud-based managed security service. Its offerings include security services such as WAF, DDoS, and Anti-Bot protection services. The Silverline services are enabled by BIG-IP ASM, Shape, and NGINX technology platforms.

Volterra

In 2021, F5 acquired Volterra, an edge networking company, for $500 million.[23] It sells SaaS security services.

Threat Stack

Reported on Monday, September 20, 2021, F5, Inc. announced plans to acquire Threat Stack, a Boston, MA cloud security startup for a reported $68 million. The deal is expected to close during F5's first fiscal quarter of 2022, which begins on October 1, 2021.[24][25]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "F5 NETWORKS INC 2016 Annual Report Form (10-K)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. September 30, 2016. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869518000031/ffiv10k9-30x2018.htm. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "F5 NETWORKS INC 2017 Annual Report Form(10-K)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000104869517000028/ffiv10k9-30x2017.htm. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "English (US)" (in en-US). https://www.f5.com/. 
  4. ↑ "How F5 Networks built an empire on controlling the internet" (in en). 2016-06-10. https://www.information-age.com/how-f5-networks-built-empire-controlling-internet-123461595/. 
  5. ↑ Datanyze. "F5 BIG-IP Platform Market Share and Competitor Report | Compare to F5 BIG-IP Platform, F5 BIG-IP APM, AWS Elastic Load Balancer" (in en). https://www.datanyze.com/market-share/load-balancers--20/f5-big-ip-platform-market-share. 
  6. ↑ "Take a Flexible and Adaptable Approach to Application Delivery". September 2020. https://www.f5.com/pdf/products/big-ip-modules-ds.pdf. 
  7. ↑ "Customers" (in en-US). https://www.f5.com/customer-stories. 
  8. ↑ [1][|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
  9. ↑ "F5 Networks Form 10-K". https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048695/000119312511318885/d223035d10k.htm. 
  10. ↑ "Creative Guidelines". April 2020. https://www.f5.com/pdf/f5/F5-Creative-Guidelines.pdf. 
  11. ↑ Rossi, Ben. "How F5 Networks built an empire on controlling the internet". http://www.information-age.com/how-f5-networks-built-empire-controlling-internet-123461595/. 
  12. ↑ "F5 Networks Inc files for a $30,000,000 initial public offering on April 7, 1999". 1999-04-07. http://stockipodatesprices.com/f5-networks-inc-ipo-filed-initial-public-offering-size-amount-valuation-date-april-1999/. [yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
  13. ↑ "F5 names new CEO after yearlong search". The Seattle Times. January 30, 2017. http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/f5-names-new-ceo-after-yearlong-search/. 
  14. ↑ "F5 Networks will move HQ to glitzy new Seattle skyscraper, to be called 'F5 Tower'". 3 May 2017. https://www.geekwire.com/2017/f5-networks-will-move-hq-glitzy-new-seattle-skyscraper-called-f5-tower/. 
  15. ↑ Steven Iveson (2013-04-20). "What the Heck Is F5 Networks' TMOS?". packetpushers.net. http://packetpushers.net/what-the-heck-is-f5-networks-tmos/. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "No operating system is an island". embedded.com. 2008-12-14. http://www.embedded.com/design/connectivity/4026945/No-operating-system-is-an-island. 
  17. ↑ "What The Heck Is F5 Networks' TMOS? - Packet Pushers -" (in en-US). Packet Pushers. 2013-04-20. http://packetpushers.net/what-the-heck-is-f5-networks-tmos/. 
  18. ↑ "Manual Chapter: Understanding Core System Services". f5.com. http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/tmos_management_guide_10_1/tmos_appendix_c_system_services.html. 
  19. ↑ "Overview of BIG-IP Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) CPU and RAM usage". f5.com. http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/3000/200/sol3242.html. 
  20. ↑ "F5 acquires NGINX for $670M to move into open-source, multi-cloud services" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/f5-acquires-nginx-for-670m-to-move-into-open-source-multi-cloud-services/. 
  21. ↑ Condon, Stephanie. "F5 to acquire Shape Security for approximately $1 billion" (in en). https://www.zdnet.com/article/f5-to-acquire-shape-security-for-approximately-1-billion/. 
  22. ↑ Gagliordi, Natalie. "F5 Networks intros new fraud detection engine based on Shape Security acquisition" (in en). https://www.zdnet.com/article/f5-networks-intros-new-fraud-detection-engine-based-on-shape-security-acquisition/. 
  23. ↑ "F5 Networks Reaches $500 Million Deal for Startup Volterra" (in en). Bloomberg.com. 2021-01-07. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/f5-networks-is-said-to-near-500-million-deal-for-volterra. 
  24. ↑ Page, Carly. "F5 acquires cloud security startup Threat Stack for $68 million" (in en). https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/20/f5-acquires-cloud-security-startup-threat-stack-for-68-million/. 
  25. ↑ Networks, F5. "F5 Enhances Cloud Security Portfolio with Acquisition of Threat Stack" (in en). https://investors.f5.com/news/press-release-details/2021/F5-Enhances-Cloud-Security-Portfolio-with-Acquisition-of-Threat-Stack/default.aspx. 

External links

[ ⚑ ] 47°37′21″N 122°21′49″W / 47.6225°N 122.36361°W / 47.6225; -122.36361




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