SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 16, 2011 - F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced improved live virtual machine migration capabilities for customers leveraging NetApp® unified storage and VMware virtualization solutions. Based on recent performance testing results, this new solution combines the companies' technologies to help customers seamlessly migrate live virtual machines between data centers without any perceivable disruption to users or applications.

"Strong partnerships with industry leaders such as NetApp and VMware help us maximize the efficiency of customers' virtualization and cloud deployments," said Jim Ritchings, VP of Business Development at F5 Networks. "By implementing F5, NetApp, and VMware products in concert, our customers can dynamically and cost effectively scale application resources across data centers, providing higher availability and optimized performance for multiple scenarios-including geographically dispersed users, disaster avoidance, and consolidation efforts-to avoid unplanned downtime within data centers."

F5 has continued its collaboration with NetApp and VMware to further simplify the migration of applications between data centers. Combining F5, NetApp, and VMware technologies, customers can optimize performance to improve the effectiveness of live migrations of virtual machines as well as applications that were not originally designed for distributed deployment.

The combination of VMware vSphere®5, VMware vMotion®, NetApp FlexCache®, and F5's BIG-IP® products enables customers to seamlessly distribute application deployments and virtual machines across multiple data centers, bolstering business continuity/disaster avoidance efforts. Through F5's broader BIG-IP portfolio of Local Traffic Manager™, Global Traffic Manager™, and WAN Optimization Manager™solutions, F5 ensures that user requests can be redirected and optimized throughout the migration process, meaning that systems can stay online and users maintain access to applications and data. In addition, because the solution has been validated through joint testing efforts, customers can be confident of reliable performance and optimized availability.

Supporting Quotes
"With the combined solution, customers can extend the benefits of virtualization beyond traditional, siloed data centers," said Patrick Rogers, VP, Corporate Alliances at NetApp. "Customers can enjoy more control over dynamic resources, including where applications reside and the physical resources they can access. With enhanced application mobility, organizations are in a better position to proactively address changing conditions, including potential disaster scenarios in which application resources need to be diverted quickly from a site or location under duress."

"As many organizations build out their application deployment models using virtualization and cloud technologies, interoperable solutions are increasingly attractive," said Parag Patel, VP, Global Strategic Alliances at VMware. "VMware partners with leading network and storage vendors to help customers get the most out of their IT investments. F5 solutions, combined with VMware and NetApp technologies, enable organizations to overcome network latency across broader distances, providing fast and powerful live migration capabilities with vMotion and now Metro vMotion. We look forward to jointly developing further technology enhancements through our strong technology partnership with F5."

Availability
All F5, NetApp, and VMware products and technologies referenced in this announcement are currently available.

Additional Resources

About F5 Networks
F5 Networks, Inc., the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), helps the world's largest enterprises and service providers realize the full value of virtualization, cloud computing, and on-demand IT. F5® solutions help integrate disparate technologies to provide greater control of the infrastructure, improve application delivery and data management, and give users seamless, secure, and accelerated access to applications from their corporate desktops and smart devices. An open architectural framework enables F5 customers to apply business policies at "strategic points of control" across the IT infrastructure and into the public cloud. F5 products give customers the agility they need to align IT with changing business conditions, deploy scalable solutions on demand, and manage mobile access to data and services. Enterprises, service and cloud providers, and leading online companies worldwide rely on F5 to optimize their IT investments and drive business forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technology. For a complete listing of F5 community sites, please visit www.f5.com/news-press-events/web-media/community.html.

Contacts:

F5, BIG-IP, Global Traffic Manager, Local Traffic Manager, and WAN Optimization Manager 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.

This press release may contain forward looking statements relating to future events or future financial performance that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of such terms or comparable terms. These statements are only predictions and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements based upon a number of factors including those identified in the company's filings with the SEC.