F5 Solution Optimizes Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), today announced the availability of a new Application Ready Solution that provides high availability, improved performance, and scalability for the recently announced Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010.

Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 provides a unified management interface for multiple remote access technologies including Windows Server 2008 R2 DirectAccess. The F5® Application Ready Solution for Microsoft Forefront UAG 2010 helps enterprise customers embrace this new technology from Microsoft and scale their UAG 2010 deployments. F5 delivers application-level optimization for servers hosting these remote access technologies.

"F5 is pleased to announce availability of the Application Ready Solution for Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010,” said Calvin Rowland, VP of Application Partner Programs at F5. "As the mobile workforce grows, so does the need for organizations to deploy highly available and scalable remote access technologies to deliver business-critical applications to those users. With this addition to F5’s extensive Application Ready Solution portfolio, we continue to demonstrate our deep and ongoing commitment to early solution design and qualification with Microsoft, ensuring that F5 solutions are available to customers at the same time that Microsoft products are delivered.”

F5® BIG-IP® Local Traffic Manager™ (LTM™) maximizes the availability and performance of the Forefront UAG 2010 servers. F5 iRules™ commands provide custom client connection handling to ensure that traffic returns from application servers to clients via the same UAG server where the original connection was established. This solution enables multiple UAG servers to be deployed together for optimal utilization of resources, and scaling to service the required number of end-users. In addition, F5’s DevCentral™ portal, the only ADN online IT user community, provides a custom iRule specifically designed for Windows Server 2008 R2 Direct Access configuration. With DevCentral, customers can download free iRules, collaborate on innovative ADN solutions, and share best practices in the portal’s discussion forums.

"Microsoft is pleased that F5 is committed to and has invested in the Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 solution to help customers realize Business Ready Security,” said John Chirapurath, Senior Director in the Identity and Security Business Group at Microsoft. "We anticipate strong customer demand for this solution in the coming months as customers look to unify and better secure their remote access infrastructure. The long-time technology collaboration between Microsoft and F5 continues to bring significant advantages for our mutual customers.”

This announcement marks the latest Application Ready Solution release from F5 supporting Microsoft’s 2010 product launches. F5 design and qualification testing on site with Microsoft validates the technical implementation and solution viability. Deployment guidance for F5 and Microsoft solutions is located online at www.f5.com/solutions/applications/microsoft/.

About Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010

Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 is a secure remote access solution that helps provide application intelligence and granular access control. It is the evolution of proven technologies in the Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG 2007). Forefront UAG is a single solution for remote access needs, as it provides centralized management and policy control across all users, devices, and network resources. More information at: http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/unified-access-gateway/en/us/.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), focused on ensuring the secure, reliable, and fast delivery of applications. F5’s flexible architectural framework enables community-driven innovation that helps organizations enhance IT agility and dynamically deliver services that generate true business value. F5’s vision of unified application and data delivery offers customers an unprecedented level of choice in how they deploy ADN solutions. It redefines the management of application, server, storage, and network resources, streamlining application delivery and reducing costs. Global enterprise organizations, service and cloud providers, and Web 2.0 content providers trust F5 to keep their business moving forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

F5, BIG-IP, Local Traffic Manager, iRules, and DevCentral are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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