F5 Rolls Out New Tools and Resources with DevCentral
Offers unique support for building closer collaboration between enterprise application, network, and security teams
SEATTLE, JUNE 12, 2006 – F5 Networks, Inc. today announced that its unique DevCentral online technical community now offers powerful new tools and resources designed to enhance and accelerate productivity and innovation for customers and partners using F5 products. DevCentral, with a rapidly growing global community of over 9,000 registered users, offers an online forum, wikis, sample code, and other resources designed to expand the possibilities of F5 products based on the Company’s advanced TMOS architecture. With today’s announcement, DevCentral now features:
An industry-first network rule editor that accelerates iRule development
Expanded collaboration on more F5 products, including FirePass® SSL VPN
Global Syndication of DevCentral TV (DCTV) via Apple’s iTunes® and Yahoo’s Yahoo! Podcasts®
“Prior to DevCentral’s launch nearly three years ago, there was no online community or forum where application architects, networking and security professionals could go to share practical, real-world information in order to build solutions that enable applications to work in concert with the underlying network,” said Jeff Browning, director of product management, integration tools at F5. “We’re excited to enhance the tools we provide and expand the ways that people can utilize these resources. The underlying goal of DevCentral and iRules is to help simplify peoples’ jobs and address challenges they face efficiently through the ability to draw on others’ expertise -- not only from F5 but from a rapidly growing worldwide community of experts.”
Among the new DevCentral resources and tools is an industry-first network rule editor that accelerates F5 iRule development. iRules offer a new approach to optimizing how the underlying network can better accommodate the various needs of different enterprise applications and protocols. F5 Customers and partners use iRules to overcome application development obstacles allowing the network to be a more active and dynamic participant in the successful delivery of applications.
Based on TCL syntax, iRules offer an approachable and powerful option for exercising advanced control over complex application flows made visible by F5’s exclusive TMOS architecture featuring bi-directional, full-proxy intelligence. With the release of the new iRule Editor, customers can experience faster iRule development and deployment through proven editor functionality including:
Highlighted iRule commands and events including auto-complete functionality
Template support integrated with DevCentral Codeshare for rapid development, point and click sharing with the DevCentral community
Pre-deployment syntax checking for reduced errors and faster troubleshooting
Integrated iRule deployment and performance optimization utilities
Online support via the DevCentral community forum
“A big challenge within enterprise IT is the divide that exists between the application architecture, development, and the network operations teams,” said Abner Germanow, director of enterprise network research for IDC. “Technologies like iRules and more importantly the community behind it, enables effective collaboration between these groups in need of better integrated, application-fluent networking strategies.”
New FirePass support allows for SSL VPN customization. DevCentral offers new FirePass-specific areas, including Discussion Forums, Tech Tips, and DCTV Features. Also included is technical wiki documentation. DevCentral documentation and forum collaboration for extending FirePass includes:
Webtop customization for tight integration with existing web applications
Advanced endpoint security policies to granularly validate endpoint security rules
BIG-IP and FirePass integration through iRules
Client API integration enabling developers to seamlessly bind secure remote access to standard rich client applications
Global Syndication of DevCentral TV (DCTV) via iTunes and Yahoo! Podcasts.
Expanding upon F5’s leadership in technical community video blogging, DCTV is now syndicated through iTunes and Yahoo! Podcasts for widespread access and viewing on new video-capable mobile devices.
Availability
The new iRule Editor is available for free download at DevCentral. FirePass customization support on DevCentral is available today. DCTV videos are added weekly, including interviews, code reviews, and whiteboard discussions, and can be viewed from DevCentral or downloaded now via iTunes and Yahoo! Podcasts.
About DevCentral
DevCentral is a Web site and community offering practical, real-world solutions and discussions to bridge the traditional gap that has existed between application developers and network professionals. Available for free to anyone interested in learning more, DevCentral is a rich resource offering tools, techniques, and collaboration to help the F5 user community solve business problems faster and more effectively.
About F5 Networks
F5 Networks is a global leader in application delivery networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast, and available for everyone, helping organizations get the most out of their investment. By adding intelligence and manageability into the network to offload applications, F5 optimizes applications and allows them to work faster and consume fewer resources. F5's extensible architecture intelligently integrates application optimization, protects the application and the network, and delivers application reliability -- all on one universal platform.
For more information, go to http://www.f5.com.
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